The coming of Adams

So happy to have my keg system back!

And no, this isn't Sam Adams we're talking about here, it's my long-anticipated first Princeton batch of homebrew, a SMaSH Yorkshire bitter made with Maris Otter malt and Willamette hops.  Last week after cleaning and sanitizing my kegs and tap system, I finally got the beer flowing here at Yorkshire Meadows.  Even got to test it out on some friends, who officially praised it as "a great EPA"...will unleash it on a few more this weekend at the Gervin Manor Halloween extravaganza.

Here's the basic rundown so those tasting it--or those who might not get to--know what to expect from it.  As you can see from the picture, it is a nice golden beer with a brilliant white head that is rather thick and frothy.  Head dissipates into a ring of foam but leaves some de-lovely lacing.  Aroma is lovely Willamette hops...but I wish it were a little bit stronger...oh well, we'll do some dry/keg hops next time.  Flavor is earthy and floral, with the Willamette hops dominating a lot of the profile.  I really like their character; it's like if hops of the delicious East Kent Golding variety had just a touch of that American Northwest pine/citrus hop flavor and aroma, which is really quite nice.  Hop flavor gives way to a nice biscuity malt flavor that comes only from Maris Otter, no specialty malts.  Yeast profile is damn near perfect and leaves a nice residual sweetness that balances out the hop bitterness very well.  At just around 4% ABV, this is a great session beer, too.  Easy drinking for sure.  Anyway, that was just a quick rundown...I'll post a real review sometime in the near future, near because I don't see this batch lasting long.

Stairs make for great gravitational siphoning into kegs!

Back in the game!

This weekend, with my car getting fixed and WCC having a day off on Monday, I was finally able to go home to Andover, MA and get my kegerator and C02 stuff, along with my kegs.  This means that I finally get to drink up my first Princeton batch of beer, the Maris Otter/Willamette SMaSH bitter that I brewed way back in late August/early September.  It tastes great, and I originally wanted to naturally carbonate it with some malt extract for some semblance of "real ale" authenticity, but I really want to start drinking this guy now, so I'm probably going to force carbonate it.  Depending on how I like the flavor, I may throw in a bag of whole keg hops for a little English hop freshness (gotta stick with Willamette to keep this beer Single Malt and Single Hop!).  I can't wait to finally be drinking this stuff, though.  I'll probably keg it tomorrow and that will put it ready to drink this weekend!

Since I finally have my lovely car back, I'll be brewing at a much higher rate again.  I'm really liking the idea of an amber-pumpkin-spice-autumnal-Franco-Belgian-saison-thing...so that's probably what I'll go for next.  It'll be a great cold weather/Thanksgiving/etc beer!  Stay tuned!