Update time!

You expected a different cap color??

The time has arrived for me to move beyond the flip cap bottle. No that I'm going to start selling anytime soon, but more because there are times when I want to be able to not mind if a bottle doesn't come back. Flip cap bottles can cost up to $2 each, so I'm sure you can understand why I might want to go this route. 

But what about the beer??

This weekend wasn't supposed to be a big brew weekend. At the most, I was thinking I might knock out the other experimental IPA batch. Mostly, this weekend saw me tending to the batches in process as well as a little bit of attention to the garden...which may supply some fermentables later in the year. 

And the answer is none. None more black.

The two batches seen above are the Chocolate Stout and the CDL.  I put the stout into secondary and it weighed in at 1.024, down from 1.086. Not much further to go and I anticipate bottling this weekend.  The CDL was also coming along nicely.  It is also only a few points away from being done. The massive layer at the bottom is most likely due to that last krausen it went through...which means I either need to be REALLY careful at bottling time or put it into a third bottle to refine...and if I do THAT, I may as well dry hop.  Hmmm...sounds like a plan...

Chocolate stout trub.  Looks tasty, right??

I 

SCIENCE!

In the end, I did end up putting together that other experimental IPA...well, technically a Cascadian Dark Ale.  While I didn't take the full-on shortcut approach, I still feel like I'd rather stick with all-grain from here on out.  It  just clicks with me better.  I ended up doing a long steep and even a longer boil so I could really pull some of the oils out of the Chinook hops.  Centennial and Cascade were also used.  It initially weighed in at 1.084, but this time, I knocked it down to 1.070. Why?  Seemed like a good idea at the time....and a little extra volume wouldn't be so bad.  Hopefully those yeastie beasties will do there thing and I'll have a good lead on my own CD-something.