Feels like forever

Since I last posted, though it was only a week ago. My new job keeps me busy and exhausted and to be honest I've been too tired to try and tend to my wine more than I already do. Thankfully, it's a very hands-off kind of hobby and less is more is better.

Last week the Muscat had cleared up but I hadn't gotten around to racking it a third time. So today I decided to head over to Northern Brewer to pick up a faucet adapter. While there I bought a Nut Brown Ale kit and then kicked myself when I got home and realized that the yeast I had was the Belgium Abby not the London Ale I thought. So now I have to go back to Northern Brewer and get the right yeast in order to start the Ale. I hate making more than one trip in a week. I'm pretty sure that my kit would last a week if I get home and decide that I'm just too tired to go to St. Paul.

I racked the Muscat to a new 3gallon carboy and topped it off with what I had in the 1 gallon and managed to get an extra bottles-worth into a 750ml. Of course even as I write this I remember that I forgot to put some campden tablets into it. Oh well, I'll do that tomorrow. No worries I'm generally ok with as little sulphiting as possible. I'm down to a few bottles of the Pinot Blanc left. I have to remember to give some away to key folks. I suppose I should see how the rest of my 1 gallon batches are doing.

I had most awful scare this afternoon while racking. I needed a bottle for the leftover and so I went to the box of empties I keep for just such an occasion and I saw a green one upside down so I stuck my hand on it, placing my thumb in the depression and went to pull it out. I felt something soft and squishy and I FREAKED I dropped the bottle faster than greased spit and as it fell something dark fell out of the depression. I'm pretty sure it was a spider. It was HUGE. I kept checking my thumb to see if there were fang marks in it. I later picked it up with a damp paper towel (damp with sanitizing solution, just in case) and a leather mitten and threw it away. Spiders creep my shit out.

That said I look forward to a cool apartment and some beer-making maybe Thursday or Friday. I still have to move that Dead Bunny Braggot to the basement. I've been playing with ideas for another braggot made in a strong ale style using that Belgium Abby or in an American Barleywine Ale style. Both styles use the Abby yeast and since I don't know enough about them I figure I should follow the suggestion of yeast styles from Wyeast. I'm not seeing nearly as many braggot yeast recipes, which cements the idea that most people don't make them.