I just picked up two new kegs from Dylan at 33 last night, which means that I have three commercial beers in the kegerator for the first time ever. The initial plan was to split the kegerator space between commercial and home brew, but I have just not had the motivation/time/dedication/energy to brew for 9 months now – and I’m not sure when I’ll get around to it again.
I actually brewed yesterday, and had a great time with my friend Kevin (and his friend Darryl) teaching them how to brew using the all-grain method. But, teaching is different than doing, and I was very happy to leave Kevin’s house when we were done and pick up my two sixth barrels (a bit more than 5 gallons in a 1/6 bbl) of already finished delicious brew. I had been trying to guilt myself into brewing something, but finally decided it just wasn’t going to work.
In light of my last post, I decided that adding a third commercial keg would help me cut down on bottled beer purchases, as I would have a nice variety available on draft. I still have some Pride & Joy from Three Floyds, which is a hoppy American Pale Ale, so I chose to add a nice lager – New Belgium’s Blue Paddle Pilsener – and something dark – New Holland’s excellent oatmeal stout, The Poet. While a dark beer might seem an odd choice for Summer (98F today!), this one is modest in alcohol, and has flavors that compliment a lot that we eat during the Summer. I find many darker beers work very well with grilled food and a lot of Mexican, and TexMex things. In fact, I’ve often thought that a Mexican restaurant looking to dip a toe into craft beer would do very well to add a tap for New Belgium’s 1554, which is just a terrific food beer.
I’m excited to tap these later today and get to work on improving my discipline – practice, practice, practice!
