My Year in Beer

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May 21, 2012 - Pint - Sean's Bar, Athlone, Ireland
Established in 900AD - oldest pub in Europe

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This is one of the better reads on HBT! Definitely makes me want to move to a state with a bigger beer selection... Keep it up!
 
Head to the porter house, they have the largest selection of craft beers on draft, they brew in their own brewery. And it is not your average BMC pub as they only come in bottles :)
 
OhCrap said:
Head to the porter house, they have the largest selection of craft beers on draft, they brew in their own brewery. And it is not your average BMC pub as they only come in bottles :)

Thanks for the heads up - I'll check it out tomorrow.
 
I guess all they drink in ireland is guiness :) Must be really nice this time of year. I had the third voyage friday night. I liked it alot.

Guinness IS pretty much all they drink in Ireland. It's not an exaggeration to say that the country is built on it.

That being said, the reason I drink so much of it while I'm there is it's simply delicious. I know it's cliche, but the Guinness they serve in Ireland is infinitely better than what we're able to get here in the states. It's creamier and less bitter and it's poured to perfection. I could drink 100 of them, and came pretty close to that this last trip. :)

I liked the Third Voyage too, very nice example of the style. Good to see that Sam Adams hasn't forgotten their micro roots.
 
Great thread. If you are reader, try McCarthy's Bar for a GREAT and very funny travelog through Ireland. I read it when I was over there. I drank a lot of Guinness too.

Thanks. I don't know why anyone would go to Ireland and NOT drink a lot of Guinness. You'd miss so much about what makes Ireland (and the people) great.

I read McCarthy's Bar a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. If you liked that one you should also try "Around Ireland With a Fridge" and "Last of the Donkey Pilgrims". Similar in subject and both great reads.
 
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I really enyoy your writing. i know it's time consuming, but it would be nice if you would include a little story with the pictures of your beers.
 
I really enyoy your writing. i know it's time consuming, but it would be nice if you would include a little story with the pictures of your beers.

Glad you are enjoying it - thanks.

I'll try to add a little more meat to the posts and throw some wheres and whys to the whats.
 
June 2, 2012 - HB Imperial Nut Brown Ale - Brew Day in the Third Bay (AG Light Rye)

Today I'm drinking the first bottle of a batch of Imperial Nut Brown Ale I made (mini-mash). I think it's okay - my wife thinks it's very good. I believe the difference in opinion is worth noting. Brewing as a hobby exists on a spectrum, and I think I've crossed into a new wavelength.

When I tasted my first few batches of homebrew, I thought they all tasted great (though I'm sure they didn't). My excitement compounded by my lack of knowledge made every new batch a revelation. I'll call this the "Holy **** I Brewed This' phase. Every batch I brewed turned out great. How could it not - I brewed it?

This honeymoon period lasted about six batches. During those initial batches, while I was brewing and amazing myself, I was also learning about the brewing process. I was buying books and reading forums and generally filling my noggin with as much brewing knowledge (right and wrong) as I could get my eyeballs on.

Now knowledge is like light - it can be good and bad. Throw on a light in a darkened room and suddenly you can see everything you were missing before - that's good. But suddenly you can also see that you've been wearing your underwear on your head - that's bad. So once I stepped into the blinding light of brewing knowledge, I could no longer ignore the fact that I had been brewing with my underwear on my head. I now knew about original gravity and final gravity and flocculation and attenuation and acetaldehyde and diacetyl and fruity esters. Fruity esters for f**k's sake! Why hadn't anyone warned me about the fruity esters?

Never again would I be able to brew in blissful ignorance. Now I was blinders off and constantly watching my temperature and my times and my ph levels and my hop utilization rates. I was still enjoying myself, but some of the bloom was off the brewing rose. I was on high alert. Brewing disaster could befall me at any moment. I was always one degree or dirty hydrometer away from brewing tragedy. And the beers I brewed past batch six didn't taste as good to me. I could taste each missed mash temp, each boil over, each gravity point missed. I still enjoyed the beers, but not quite as much. The honeymoon was over. I'll call this the "What'd You Mess Up on This One" phase.

This period lasted at least another 20 batches (and to be honest still reverberates today). It's only recently that I've balanced 'learned enough' and 'brewed enough' to the point of relative parity. I still know when I screw things up, but I've brewed enough to know what's a catastrophe and what's not. I'll compare it to being a adult. After almost 30 years of living on my own, I've finally arrived at the point where when an alarm goes off - I know when to panic, and when to reach for a fresh nine volt battery. When I brew, I'm usually reaching for a fresh battery. I'll call this the "Don't Sweat It But Don't Bet It (Yet)" phase, and it's very nice.

This is the phase I'm currently in. I'm relaxed enough to enjoy brewing again at a high level, but I'm still cognoscente of the fact that I'm living and learning. I now know what I don't know - and I can still taste that in my beers. But I'm less worried about it and I can finally pull out the evidence of my beer's gradual improvement. Each batch gets a little better, every beer get's a little closer to where I now know I need to go. I'm content but not satisfied, and isn't that what we should all shoot for?

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Very well put Donnelly. There's a fine line between taking pride in your hobby and it becoming more work than fun. Always enjoy your updates....and your locales.
 
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