The omnibus continues...February is a big beer month for me.
The main reason being because it is when I celebrate my birthday. I was lucky enough to receive a a box of random beers from the
Beer Cellar. Always a welcome gift. I now have a great selection of beers that I might otherwise never have tried. At the rate I drink them this will last me for ages.
With it being my birthday it is also an opportunity to have some drinks out on the town with Wellington. Family duties mean heading out to the bars doesn't rank high on my list of priorities these days. What that also means is that, with a preference to head to craft beer bars, a few drinks can knock your head off a bit easier than it used to. Craft beers typically come in around 6% plus ABV so it takes a lot fewer beers to become a lot more drunk. A trip to the
Bruhaus and
Hashigo Zake made sure I would be in less than stellar form the next day and not remember what I had to drink the night before. No time for logging your beers on Untappd
https://untappd.com/user/marcusmcmillan when spending time with your friends. Nonetheless I am developing a healthy respect for mid-strength beers...
Unfortunately it looks pretty definite that my APA is broken. Every bottle that I open froths uncontrollably till half the bottle is gone and the rest is a mixed up mess. Even leaving a bottle in the fridge for a couple of weeks will not help. I will continue to try in vain but I have learnt a lesson about having too much muck in my brew.
However, I did get my porter bottled. It wasn't looking quite as dark as I would have liked but I guess that is from having too much water in the liquid. Hopefully the taste is all good. At least the sediment looks to be much less than on the APA so hopefully we can avoid frothy messes.
I would also like to use this months blog to give a shout out to what has been my go to beer this long warm summer.
Tuatara Sauvinova has been a tasty refreshing treat at BBQs and other outdoor activities. It comes in a six pack, its single hop (
Nelson Sauvin) has a tasty flavour without being strongly hoppy and it has a funky compass design in its logo. It is just very drinkable.
I have also continued to listen to the
beer diary podcast. It makes me smile when virtually every podcast starts with an apology for it being so long between releases. It makes me feel better about the fact that my blogging is hardly what you would call frequent either.
I did get to try my porter this month. Good news is it didn't froth up like the APA did. Bad news is that doesn't mean it came out right. I believe the best way to describe it is faulty... As previously noted the colour is more a dark brown than an almost black, which is what I was hoping for. That is not the biggest issue though. The biggest issue is the sour taste. A porter is not sour. I understand this means my beer has an infection. I have tried a few over the month and my initial hope that it was just a couple of faulty bottles is quickly fading. I will continue to see how it goes but this is another batch that may again remain unshared.
