Blonde's Are More Fun?

When it comes to brewing, I would say Blondes are a little more of a high-maintenance bitch instead of fun...was that too much? They aren't that easy...not it either. A more difficult beer to get consistent and desired results out of. There we go. Back to brewing, I have been on quite the tear of brewing recently, but had to slow do a bit because of lack of equipment. Not really a bad thing because it made me try to catch up on my drinking a bit. Giving the Blonde another try, the store was out of the malt I was looking to change to, so made an on the fly change and we'll see how it turns out.

Blonde
Malts: American 2-Row, Wheat, Rye
Hops: Brewer's Gold, Glacier
ABV: ~4%
Playlist: Shuffle

This is what my dog does while I brew, lounges around eating our flowers. Come on Sophie, we are trying to be classy here

The previous Blonde is about gone and I was semi-satisfied with it. A little too bitter for the style which also took a little away from the drinkablity (I can't believe I just used a Budweiser word, but that is something I am looking for in a session beer). I also thought that the fruity esters in the beer were also a little higher than desirable. Specifically the banana flavor (Isoamylacetate for those wondering the brewing term for it). From what I can tell this is a result of some of my brewing techniques, but also the yeast that I used is known to promote fruity esters. So this time I am trying a different yeast strain and see how that changes the flavor profile, specifically the fruity esters. The rye is only used in small amounts, but rye does have a very distinctive flavor so we will have to wait and see how it turns out.

Other thoughts. I got the parts I ordered to be able to do some draft line cleaning and sure enough the adapters that I got do not work, so it is back to the drawing board on that.

Kegged the stout today and since the batch was little too big for the keg I am sipping on a glass of flat, cellar temperature stout. Not exactly idea for a warm sunny mid-day drink, but I don't want to pour it out, tough job but someone has to do it. Initial thoughts are that the beer has promise. Very bitter due to both the amount of hops I used, but the roasted/coffee flavors add another type of bitterness.

Sampled the pale ale from a week back, very stoked for this one.

Huge props to Sheila, just got my birthday present. I always hated on people who wore bike jerseys, except those with beer bike jersey. Black Butte Porter bike jersey, tight. Almost makes me feel like going for a ride, except the whole already been drinking thing.