Cluster-Fuggles goes secondary

Was able to rack the Cluster-Fuggles Ale to secondary. The gravity at the moment is down to 1.016, giving about 4.7% ABV. For one of my brews, this is quite low. I will find my notes and double check the OG. It does smell great though.

The Stone Brewery Rare and Vintage tasting at Jungle Jim's on the 29th of May was unbelievable. If you missed this one, you missed the best single brewery tasting the Jungle will ever and has ever had. Yeah, it was THAT fantastic. I took my D80 and took some pics, but I didn't have the good flash, so the crowd shots are a bit dark. The Spring Beer fest is coming up on the 19th of June, don't miss that one either. Over 50 breweries from around the world. All that, here in Cincinnati. Who would have thunk it.

I did another test of the Oatmeal Stout, version 2. The "official" name of the brew is Crystal My Oats. The head was excellent, but the feel and taste are a bit week. I will try this version again, but this time I am doing things old school by cracking the grains and then bringing them to a boil. No more steeping for 20 minutes at 150. With this "newer" method, I am not getting the results I did 10 years ago. I will still use a grain bag to help with the mess. I will try to brew version 2b soon.

After the tasting, I gave out many samples to several people, including some newly meet homebrewers (though I think I met one of them back during the Samuel Adams tasting). I have not heard back yet, but I will report here when I do.

A friend of mine has started his own beer rating site. My beers should start appearing there. I entered my brewery as "Brainmuffin's Beer Kitchen" so be sure to check it out. All complaints are automatically sent to /dev/null.

I see that Charles Papazian is now on Twitter and I follow him. To a homebrewer, he is THE MAN. I don't know if he actually reads anything I send to him, but at least I am a peep amongst the multitudes. I still have his book "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing" copyright 1991 on my desk and refer to it often. There are other books these days and this one has a more up to date print, but this copy is near and dear to my heart. I read from it frequently and have yet to make every recipe it contains. Perhaps there is a small quest for me.

A thanks to all my bottle suppliers. I now have more to wash. This latest batch will no doubt host most of my Cluster-Fuggles ale. It is great fun to return these bottles full of homebrew.

Good night.