The satisfied feeling

many of you don't know this but... I am an actor.   (well a community theater actor, which is like a guy on a beer league softball team claiming to be a ball player.)  We recently wrapped a show at a local theater.  I played a big bald guy for the 4th time.  It was a big success, thousands came to see it. And it was a great experience.   A great experience made better by the fact that so many people got to try my home brew... and they seemed to love it.  A couple of those guys are probably reading this now.  And I got to help some of them rekindle their interest in homebrewing.   Several of them are coming to Ranchero de Dave to brew with me.

For the first couple of servings I kept it pretty tame. Cool Gales Cream Ale,  Everyday Pale Ale, Belgian Common, ESB... but as my beer muggle cast mates and spouses pallets adjusted I hit them with the big guns.   Pliny the Toddler (a 3.5 gallon batch dry hopped with 1 ounce each of simcoe, cascade, and centennial), a cascade smash, a blueberry cream ale, and a 20% lacto soured Strawberry Blonde.   All of the beers were consumed in short order (nearly record time).

So this morning I am humbled and appreciative of the empty bottles in my cooler.   By the way heres a cool trick.   After a party leave the 48 bottles in the cooler, drain the water.   Add your pbw or oxiclean to the cooler, fill it with water... boom clean bottles.

Next weekend I'll be back in the kitchen brewing, and I'll shoot a detailed explanation of chilling with ice.