The first day

There are several who follow me on Twitter for homebrewing updates. Though I will still make updates there, I have decided to do a blog devoted to what I am doing with my current batches and to any other beer activities in which I may engage. More than likely, there will not be daily postings, but who knows. My OCD may overtake me and I post every 10 minutes.

The current status of my 4 batches are as follows:

• The ale I made in December is all but gone. A few 22oz-ers remain of my personal stash. This ale has a nice orange color and is quite dry. Nice hoppy start and finish. The feel was a bit weak.
  
• The kit porter (from Listermann's) is done. It is an ok porter and will do in a pinch.
• The barley wine is 9 days in the secondary and fermentation has been restarted a week now. At racking from the primary, the ABV was ~9.3%. Fermentation is going strong enough that I have to clean out the airlock every 3 days.
• The oatmeal stout is 9 days in the bottle. Last week I tried some and it needs at least 2 more weeks to condition. Is this a journey of rediscovering the recipe I used 10+ years ago (cannot find my notes), so it will take some time. This version is not sweet enough nor has as good a feel, so something is missing. Cannot wait to try again.

I was asked by some friends of mine to develop a red ale recipe. I have and I plan to brew it Saturday.

This concludes my first beer blog post. Here's to many more.