I really was hoping to have the everyday use of a computer by now. However, that has not happened. I’m thinking sometime in late fall, early winter to have that finally in my possession. It sucks not having a computer. Blows ass. All the things I used to love I can’t really do these days. Writing on this site, checking up on current events, listening to all my music(which at this point is gone). Thanks to that piece of shit PC I called the Black Bandit. I’ll even admit to having enjoyment from wasting countless hours on Facebook. Keeping up with my favorite bands’ websites. The Mischke Podcasts. Oh how I miss thee so much. Oh well, soon enough.
Purple Palace Brewing is in full swing. Just finished off a Red Ale. People kept saying it had a hint of apple in it. Matt nor myself ever tasted that. Our Belgian Trippel is still slated to be on tap in October. Tasted that one a few weeks ago, and oh my is it gonna be glorious. Our darkest beer to date will be up in September. Power Pack Porter. And finally I’m happy to announce the very first Purple Palace home recipe. Ya see, the beers we have been doing are kits. We buy pre-packaged ingredients and brew them up. We’ve been wanting to come up with our own. We both love IPA’s so thats what we decided on. A few beers and a few hours here and there and the list of ingredients was there. We used 1lb of Pale Malt, about 9.5lbs of Amber Malt Extract. 4oz. of hops. 3oz. in the boil, and 1oz. for dry hopping(Columbus and Kent Goldings hops). White Labs English Ale yeast. The initial outlook was good. Throughout the boil a significant aroma of hops. Most of our boils have more of a malty aroma. After the primary fermentation it developed into a malty aroma. A little bit worried, we were hoping the dry hopping in the secondary would turn that around. I kegged it on Sunday night, but my wretched allergies were so bad I couldn’t smell shit. I couldn’t really taste it either, so I will find that out this weekend. We ended up with a 6.5%ABV which was right on par with what we were looking for. We’ll see how it tastes. I got a new book for my birthday titles “Designing Great Beers”. A little more of an advanced book designed for brewers with a general idea of how beer is made, and what each ingredient does to the beer. It should help us out a ton when it comes to designing beers of our own. We still have dreams of doing All-Grain Brewing and Lagering. That could come into fruition this winter.
I would like to give kudos to a friend of mine for opening the Twin Cities first specialty beer store. Congrats to Jason Alvey and his store The Four Firkins located in St. Louis Park. In a time where craft brewing is exploding, it is only fitting to have a store devoted to the cause. Jason is the man to talk to about beer. An excellent selection and wonderful looking store. If you are a beer lover like I am, you MUST check out his selection. With a heavy dose of Belgian beers(which to some, is the benchmark when it comes to good beer) he also has great variety. From IPA’s that will blow your taste buds away, Stout’s and Porters with a punch, German Hefeweizen’s Marzen’s, and one that tastes like bacon, Mead, and the best selection of local breweries there’s a brew for all tastes. So, Cheers Jason, and I wish you the best of luck.
With work starting that slow slide to winter, my mind finally on something other then the next repair at work, I should find an opportunity here and there to write. Until then, Ciao.
