First sample of # 5

First pour of #5 IPA. A Bothen Brewing original. I'm really pleased with the results. Can't wait for people to try it.

Ronda & I went to the Eddie Vedder solo shows last Saturday & Monday in Santa Cruz & Berkeley. They were both fantastic. We had no real expectations going in except that we are not familiar with his solo album, the Into The Wild soundtrack, & well, we may get bored. We were wrong. Great mix of Pearl Jam songs, Into The Wild songs, & cool covers. He sounded great, was talkative, funny, told stories, & appeared to be having a great time. We've been fans since Pearl Jam started. I think we've seen them over 30 times together.

Before the Santa Cruz show we went to Red, which is the upstairs bar in the Santa Cruz Hotel. My favorite new place. They have an AWESOME selection of beers on tap including Alesmith Speedway Stout! & Nut Brown, Bear Republic Racer 5 & Racer X, Moonlight Death/Taxes & Bombay By Boat, Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter, Chimay Triple, and more I can't remember. Great bottle list too with Lost Abbey, Stone, Alesmith, Chimay, Pizza Port, etc. They have Rochefort 10 for 8$, it may be as good as Westvleteren. Don't think yopu can find selection like that south of San Francisco & North of So Cal.

Go there. Now. We'll be back soon for sure.

http://www.redsantacruz.com/index.shtml

Bottling Day

So the beer has been in the fermenter for 2 weeks. Fermentation has done it's thing & it's time to bottle.

First I had sanitize (24) bottles. I used the dishwasher.

Added a bit too much sanitizer.

Then I have to get the beer out of the fermenter and into the bottling bucket. You do this by placing the racking cane into the fermenter, attach a rubber hose to it, suck(hey now), and let the beer flow into the bucket. I put 4 ozs of dissolved corn sugar into the bottom of the bucket. This will work with the remaining yeast to make the beer have bubbles.

After the beer is in the bucket it's time to start filling up the bottles.

Then cap em off.

Beer should be ready to drink about in 2-3 weeks. I tasted a bit before bottling and it tasted like flat beer. Which I guess is a good sign.

Hope I don't end up with 24 bottles of crappy beer.

Easter 2008

Spent Easter Sunday at my sister's place. Had a great time hiding eggs with my nephew & niece, Ethan & Sara.

Sara




We filled plastic eggs with Hot Wheels & play kitchen accessories. I think we hid the same eggs 47 times. It was fun.


The hunt begins.






Sara wearing her chef's hat, oven mit, & apron

Let's open em up.

This tooth wasn't knocked out during the fun, I promise.