I spent this morning cleaning the kitchen in preparation of bottling my bourbon-vanilla porter. I started at 8 am. After washing and sanititing 2 cases of bottles (and running out to the store for carbonation drops) I was finally bottling by 10:00. At 11:30 I had 4 bottles shy of 2 cases bottled! I lost one whole bottle to a capping mishap. (Somehow I squeezed so hard on the bottle that I crushed a neat line all around the top of the bottle, effectively removing the entire top 1 inch of glass.) I lost at least a couple more beers to spillage, so I was almost dead on for two full cases. Yehaw!
My wife even got adventurous and decided to help towards the end of the process. She wanted to go to the end of the year picnic at my son's school and I think was getting nervous about how long it was taking me to get things done. Then she really shocked me by trying the porter from the half full end of the run bottle. She often says things like - they always smell so good, but then taste so bad - about dark beers. This time however she told me that this beer would taste good once it was cold. Thats about the best I've heard about anything I have made so far.
Before I put everything away I re-sanitized my racking equipment and racked the lilac wine to a one gallon carboy. Heidi thought it was a ridiculously small amount for all the work that went into it, but I explained that it will make about 4 bottles of wine when it is done. I of course did a taste test as well as suckering Heidi into trying it. It's very cidery and vinegarish right now, but there is potential there. I can taste a little of the sweetish white wine flavor underneath. I will probably have to rack again in a month since I got a good amount of sediment this time. I should have paid more attention while I was racking.
By noon I had everything cleaned up and we were out the door by 12:30. Not too shabby.
As a total non sequitur I came across this yahoo list today of the best 25 alternative bands of the 90's. Talk about a load of crap! No Pixies? (They didn't break up til 92-93.) No Jane's Addicition? No Front 242 or Ministry? No Soundgarden? No ska at all? Those are only a few of the omissions. The only Boston bands are Dinosaur Jr. and maybe the Breeders - but only one Bostonian does not make it a Boston band - just look at Weezer. Putting Nirvana at #10, not to mention Sonic Youth at #23? WTF is this guy smoking? It must be a total reactionary piece, just to get people pissy enough to comment or pass it along to others... if that is the case Mr. Rob O'Connor, you have succeeded. Otherwise it is a travesty of musical criticism.
Anyways, thats all for now. It's 2:00 and the kiddos will descend upon me and shatter the peacefulness I am so enjoying in a few minutes.
Final notes on Bourbon-Vanilla Porter: ABV ~ 4.3 - 4.5%; clean, clean, clean taste; 44 12 oz bottles; carbed with coopers carbonation drops; nice vanilla note without being overpowering - the porter character still comes through nicely; no hot alcohol taste at all.
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