mmmm...beer

Yesterday was simply filled with beer. I was up at 7am to commence The Hop Jockey's Belgian Brew Day. It was awesome. Everybody was here by 8am and we were brewing. About 7 folks showed up and only three of us brewed. JRed brewed his first all grain beer, a Belgian Wit. Not-Mr-Beer-Dave brewed a big Belgian Ale of some sort. Not quite sure what style it's going to be. I brewed a Belgian Pale. I'm going to pitch some Brettanomyces in secondary and dry hop the shit out of it. Ryan-the-grand-poobah brought his new oxygenation system and it insured quick starts for all our beer and I'm sure it will result in fully attenuated beers. That rules. Mr.Beer brought a brick-o-hot dogs and I made some burgers. It was a beautiful day. Most of us had a handful of beers under our belts by noon. Nice.

Here is a shot of the group around 9am.



This is MikeD drinking his Budweiser Select from a Prima Pils glass...BLASPHEME!



Here's a shot of brewing proceeding apace...or something.



We woke up Brian...poor Brian. It was like 10:30am or something. He needed to get up anyway.



This is proud Ryan and his new oxygenation system.



With everything cleaned and the floor mopped, we finished up with a round of Ryan's terrific raspberry lambic at about 2:30pm.



Then I headed to the dry cleaner to pick up my nice pants, took a shower and then got in the car and pointed her towards Castleton and Loon Lake Lodge.

I was headed for World Class Beverages' BIG BEER DINNER.

It was pretty sweet...and completely paid for. Look for my story at http://www.indianabeer.com in the next couple days. It's going to be big with lots of pictures. Nick Floyd and Adam Avery were out of their gourds. And Eric Warner is a great speaker. Good times. Incredible beers. That Brian Boru is out of this world tasty.

Here's a pic of the menu. Couple mistakes, like calling digestifs aperitifs...but whatever...can you blame them? It is Indiana...ha.



And here are the three wise men: