Day 104

So, right now in my closet I'm harboring a host of burbling containers of yeasty anaerobic fermentation goodness. We owe so much to our little friends, the yeasts.

A quick rundown of current brew projects:

• Summer Ale (in the big carboy w/ airlock) - Should be nice and light. I bought the grains from San Francisco Brewcraft, a fine establishment where one might find all things good in the world, given that their main ingredients are barley, hops, and yeast. Whenever I go there, there's always this guy who hangs out in the back corner of the store, sitting in a leather easy chair that groans under his weight, wearing denim overalls with one strap unbuttoned. The other employees refer to him as "Griz," and I have a hard time imagining him in a past life without his silver beard and ponytail. Anyway, I asked for something summery, and Griz wrote up the grain recipe for me. He dubbed it "Lawnmower Ale," wrote the ingredients on a sheet, and one of the other guys at the store measured out the prescribed quantities of grains into a bag for me. Once I got the brew going, I added a whole crudload of dried fruits, persimmons (from my grandma; they were already starting to ferment) and nectarines (sulfur-free from Berkeley Bowl). Prescription: Sip on a co-op roof during an especially golden afternoon.
• Hard Pear Cider (green wine bottle on the left) - Made this one real quick and dirty; it's pear juice + champagne yeast, but in a fancy looking bottle. Also, it's pretty fancy pear juice too (organic pear nectar of ambrosial origins, to be exact). Let's see what happens. Might need some aging. Prescription: Serve during a vegetarian dinner for two.
• Applejack (brown bail-top bottle on right) - A holdover from last semester (Fall 2009 vintage) when I made about 5 gallons of hard apple cider. There was a bunch left over that I didn't have the storage space for, so I concentrated it using the time-honored, pioneer-tested method of freeze distillation. Initial tastings concluded that it could use some aging to eliminate the rather unpalatable rocket fuel taste. Prescription: Toast to the new year on a mountaintop.

So that's what I've got in the pipeline. I think brewing my own alcohol has been a pretty enlightening experience since I first started about a year ago. In that time, I think I've gained a fair understanding of what the responsible consumption of alcohol looks like. It's helped that brewing beer is such a huge pain in the ass (in terms of time and cleanup). So much so that I actually try to enjoy my brew whenever I happen to crack one open, usually after a long day at work (it makes me feel so grown-up). It also helps that my attendance at the Forestry Club Bean Feeds (chili and beer night with the other Forestry majors) have made alcohol tertiary in terms of relative importance to interesting people and good food in my hierarchy of successful socializing. I could fit the times that I've been properly drunk on one hand, and it's always the company that determines how much of a good time I have. I look forward not to the actual consumption of the alcohol I have hidden away in my closet; what I really anticipate are the all wonderful people I'm going to share it with.