WE ARE ALIVE AND WELL!!

This just in... Brad and I are indeed well and alive and back brewing again.

Without getting into details, some not so cool life things happened over the past couple of months and we were a bit distracted, but all is at least well enough to get back into what we love to do so much; brew beers and make friends happy.

NEW BEER ALERT!
The first version of Rabbit's Foot Red is currently in primary fermentation. A blend of 6 types of malt and 3 types of hops at different stages should hopefully give it a nice "balanced" flavor, but who knows, it's the first run! With a little bit of luck, it will come out a nice copper ale, sort of the same color as an irish red but with a lot more to it. It originally started out as a quasi-Fat Tire clone and then as I was in the brewing supply store decided to play around the malt bill and hop bill and basically make it my own. It's like American Idol, for beer, only not.

Plan is to let this one sit for 2 weeks, then do our first secondary fermentation and filter it again after a bit of a brewing mishap...

Brewing this one was mainly a breeze, people weren't kidding when they told us practice will make us better. That is, of course, until it was time to transfer from the brew kettle to the carboy. Usually the easiest process of them all, Brad managed to misplace our funnel (he left it at a friends house after bringing it over to help him with brewing a batch) and as per usual, hilarity ensued.

We tried using a coffee filter. No luck. Carboy hole was too small.

We tried using a wine filter and funnel. No Luck. The flow was so minimal it would have taken hours and the hop sediment made it nearly impossible.

Few other failed efforts ended with my brilliant idea to sanitize an ale pail with a spigot, and use a strainer to get it in there. It worked... however... due to sanitation worries, Brad was forced to hold the bucket the entire time the brew kettle was emptying until it was full with 4.5 gallons of wort. It was his buddhist training for the day.

Buffett was then sure to lick any spilt beer off of the floor, because that's what he does.

BREAK A LEG BROWN, VERSION 4
At least, I think it's version 4... it might be 3, or 2 after 1, 1a, 1b, etc... but anyway... new version in the carboy! After some brews which we liked but always found to be a bit mediocre, I made the stunning observation of "maybe we should try a new yeast" to which Brad responded "HELL YES!" where he then proceeded to not only change the yeast, but double the amount. High aple pie in the sky hopes for this one people. Those of you who tried the last version in the bottle... it was a pretty easy drinking ale that we really liked. Hopefully this one is a bit amped up but still incredibly easy to drink.

Next up! Back to the porter (which will be entirely brand new) and figuring out a Pale Ale before getting ready to lager in the cooler months.

Our hope is to have 5 beers that we can call ours and make routinely come spring time;
Break a Leg Brown Ale - malty and easy drinking brown ale
Rabbits Food Red - A hoppy, but manageable ABV version of an amber/copper ale
Pragmatic Porter - a tasty american style porter for us to play with and add coffee and chocolate
Lucky 13 Lager - our "fizzy yellow beer" for all those scared by beer with colors
To be named pale/golden ale - not sure yet, probably figure that out this week

Long enough? I say yes.