In the Hopper

I've been brewing but neglecting to blog about it for several reasons. Time, time, and time. If anyone would have told me that adulating was this hard I would have probably just tried to be a kid forever. Deadlines, issues, conflicts, schedules, they all just get in the way of one of the most important things in life - brewing. I've been on a kit kick recently mainly due to the time factor and I have to say that it's not really been that bad. My tastes seem to revolve around IPA's and stronger Ales these days and I find myself wanting to brew a lot of variety in this area. I have an IPA on tap and a Brown Ale right now and both were kit beers with extract. Over the holidays I got some gift cards to Northern Brewer so of course I was going to use them on some beer recipes. They had a sale for certain kits for $20.16 so I jumped on that. The kits I got were all grain as I'm trying to force myself back to doing BIAB and get back away from extract. I migrated away when my bag was slightly wet and I put it in a rubbermaid and it got moldy. Had to make a new bag at that point. The kits I got are all fairly decent looking:

• Irish Red Ale (for St. Patrick's Day hopefully)
• Black IPA
• Regular IPA (brewed the extract and have on tap now, good brew)
• Vanilla Porter

I am really excited about the Vanilla Porter as that was my first ever real homebrew. I don't know what they'll send in the kit but I may go to Trader Joe's and get the nice real vanilla beans to use in secondary for that hint of vanilla. The weather needs to improve though soon or I wont be able to brew outside anytime in the neat future. The 3 feet of snow we received two weeks ago is still hampering efforts to get outside and brew. Plus, with it being winter I need to use the outside water tap when I BIAB and that's currently turned off so the pipes don't freeze. As soon as I see a Saturday or Sunday with weather in the 50's or above I am all over it. Until then, Slainte.