The Gilded Otter

We'll get back to the rest of the trip later - including the excessive number of tolls between Northern Virginia (NOVA) and Massachusets. The center piece of the trip, of course, was on Tuesday and Wednesday October 2-3 when I became the temporary assistant to the Brew Master. Darren Currier truly is a craftsman and a gentleman. I went in knowing very little and came out alive! Seriously, the process is pretty simple but the craft is in the maintaining hygienic conditions and a consistency between brews. One of my goals was to find out the secrets to being able to recreate a brew once you find the right recipe and mix. And the secret is: document everything, purchase good quality ingredients and temperature/timing control. This all doesn't necessarily come in as handy with my current setup - the single plastic fermenter - but will be very useful to know when I graduate to the system that I have planned for my "special room" in the basement of our home. More on that as the remodelling progresses.

Brew (Ha Ha)

There I was in February just minding my own business and focusing on getting older when lo and behold I was blindsided on my birthday by Phatty and Carol with not one but two gift certificates for a vacation vocation. After some sole searching (I think I stepped in something that smelled beerish) and a good firm scraping, I decided to look into learning a craft that might be of use to me in my later years. I looked pretty closely at a number of options: the sword making and self-publishing were intriguing and everyone knows I always wanted to pretend I was an architect (any Seinfeld fans?). But none of these options would come close to allowing me to achieve the true nirvana that can only be attained through continous, sustained liver abuse.

So, I narrowed down the decision to the options for brewificationary enhancement: I narrowed the choices further to those on the Eastern side of this great nation due to the proximity to my own abode - and my related lack of vacation days accruing (curse these US employment conditions!). Anyhoo, I decided to go with the Gilded Otter in New Paltz, NY. Lori has always wanted to go to New England in the autumn to see the leaves change so we planned a longer excursion to include the two days at the Gilded Otter.

Hey, where've ya been!

Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday it was December 10th and I was wondering why this blog was so out of date. Loyal readers will know that we've had our share of staffing troubles here at the ol' dog blog. Yes, over the years we've hired, fired, restructured, adopted, threatened with neutering (not effective 'cause he already was), and otherwise cajoled and bullied in an attempt to get some regular textification onto this space. Finally the management has simply had to face facts and admit that we're just plain lazy. However, now that there is a hiatus in some of the various other demands (graduate studies, certifications, brewing apprenticeship, etc)...excuse me, did you say brewing apprenticeship? Why yes, that is one of the many ramblings that I just textualized; why, would you like to know more? Oh, yes, I most certainly would! I'm so pleased to hear that - well then let's begin...