Some Nice Weather and a Big Wedding

It finally looks like spring is here. What a bizarre April we're having. I can't remember the last time that we had two solid weeks of 40 degree temps in April. Sure, you typically have a couple of bad days here and there, but two straight weeks of damp, chilling weather at a time of year that's supposed to be an interlude between winter and summer is too much for me to handle especially after 5 months of misery. April is the new March - just one big tease.

The warm weather couldn't happen at a better time. Tomorrow our man Maarten is getting hitched. Casey, Barb, Christina, and I are driving up to Syracuse tomorrow morning for what should be a really, really fun time. By the way, Syracuse received nearly a foot of snow on Monday. What a miserable place to live. But, no matter. Tomorrow marks the first day since October that they'll be over the 70 degree mark.

The Bhutas are driving in from Providence and we'll be meeting up with them for a quick lunch before heading off for the 2pm wedding. There's some lag time in between the ceremony and reception so we're all planning on hanging out and enjoying some of De Broers latest offering - a test batch we made a month ago.

We had all these random ingredients sitting around and didn't want them to go to waste so we decided to throw them all together to see what we get. And you know what? It's not too bad. We have no idea what it is but it's pretty good. Mike filled a growler of it for me to take along on the trip.

And speaking of the other Broer, he and his family need some congratulations thrown at them for the latest addition of their family - Theodore Lee Price - born this week. Weighing in at 8 lbs, 15 oz, Teddy helped maintain the Price family tradition of birthing large boys. Mike and I both weighed in at a hefty 9 lbs, 9 oz. Our poor mother.

Teddy is doing well. Christina and I drove up last night to visit Mike and Jill and the baby. Mike's birthday is April 26 so I gifted him a couple of bottles of one of the most anticipated beers in a long time - DFH's Black and Blue. We were terribly underwhelmed, as the aroma was a complete turnoff - rotting apples or some skunkishness something. There was a surprising lack of black raspberry or blueberry flavor - Enjoyable hints of fruity acidity up front, fairly thin body, and non-existent finish. I think DFH has out-thunk itself this time.

Our First Offering

So as most of you know, my brother Mike and I brew. Both of us are pretty obsessive about it and are attempting to take it very seriously. Our first release is simply named Prijs ('Price' in dutch - no we aren't dutch nor do we have any affliations or affinities towards the dutch people. This is our pathetic attempt to be cool and creative). This beer really doesn't fit into any style which is why we are calling it a Belgian Style Barleywine. Of course, there is no such thing as a Belgian Style Barleywine, but I feel it's a pretty fair description. We used a Belgian Abbey Ale yeast strain so the brew definitely gives off some of the estery spiciness of an abbey ale. But, it registers anywhere between 15-20% ABV and is fairly balanced at the front with a pronounced hoppy bitterness at the back, thus a Barleywine.

Either way, it proved to be a very difficult beer to make. Total fermentation took almost 2 months and it has bottle conditioned for 5 weeks so far (I think 8-12 weeks will be perfect). Here's a picture of the bottle (click for bigger image):

So a couple of explanations. First, we are calling our venture De Broers - dutch for Brothers. The shield you see is part of the Price Family Crest. How cute. Pascal's portrait graces the label for two reasons: 1) Christina is obsessed with him, 2) I think he's as important a figure in church history as he is in the history of science. So whatever.

I'll be bringing at least 6 to Maarten's wedding in a couple weeks.

Our second and third brews are coming along ok. The Abbey Ale is a bit too hoppy at this point and I fear we overestimated how long to include the hops in the boil. We'll see. It needs to condition for at least one more month. The Christmas Ale has been racked to secondary fermentation. We'll bottle in another two weeks and then allow it to sit until late summer/early fall. I'm hoping for the best.

Up next on the slate is a summer wheat. I'm thinking it'll be a cross between american wheat and belgian wit - using belgian yeast and orange peel with american barley and wheat. So basically we're taking a shot in the dark that it'll work.

We plan on making test batches the rest of this year. This way we can brew a ton of different beers and come up with 3-5 that can be replicated next year. I'll keep you posted.

A Bold Reappearance

Ok, so I've been pretty lazy for a almost a month. Actually, my month has been consumed with brewing and baby showers, so give me a break. But I'm back and plan on contributing consistently indefinitely.

Today has been a day that I will pine for once my daughter is born in 7 weeks or so. After a day of intense work on our house (I had Good Friday off), I decided to do nothing but watch sports and drink beer today. My day started at 10am with a really entertaining Liverpool/Reading match. I've become a huge fan of Liverpool since my infatuation with soccer began last summer. A thrilling 2-1 L'Pool win lead nicely into another soccer match pairing league leaders Manchester United against middle-tier Portsmouth. Chelsea, six points behind Man U., won earlier in the day so United needed to win to keep pace. Surprisingly, Portsmouth won 2-1 in a match dominated by PFC.

Onto more soccer, this time pairing Barcelona vs. Real Zaragoza. Barca lost 1-0 and promptly ruined my day. No matter. The Masters' coverage started online at 2:30pm with tv coverage starting at 3:30pm. Tiger is making a valiant charge and is currently only 1 behind the leader going into 16. The Masters is truly something special that any sportsfan can enjoy, regardless of their opinion on golf. HD really makes the most beautiful course in the world more so.

I have been somewhat productive today as I continue to pursue my quest for making the world's best baguette. This new obsession took hold of me over a month ago while enjoying the Sunday afternoon Price family tradition of enjoying soft cheeses, italian meats, greek olives, and pungent olive oil as a very refreshing dinner. We have enjoyed wine with this feast in the past, but Christina's delicate condition has limited our wine consumption on Sundays. No matter. It's still a great way to celebrate a Sunday evening.

So in response to my obsession with anything craft, I thought I could replicate the baguettes I've been purchasing at Wegmans. No good. The first couple attempts yielded okay results, but not nearly as flavorful or fluffy as the traditional baguette. I finally found a recipe that yielded high praise and tried it last week. This recipe required over 6 hours of my time, but I trudged though it and produced a very respectable loaf. I made some adjustments this week and I think they made a difference. My baguettes just came out of the oven and look wonderful.

Have you seen 'Planet Earth' yet? If not, you must carve out the time on Sunday at 8pm to view the single best nature production ever made. 5 years of filming resulted in 11 episodes detailing various areas of the planet in which we live - desert, icelands, forests, oceans, etc. Many of the images are of things never seen before (and they constantly remind you of this) and done in such a way that truly makes you appreciate God's creation.

In other news, Mike and I brewed a Christmas beer a couple of weeks ago. This beer requires 4-5 months of aging, so we decided it best to make it now so that it's available in the fall. It's a fairly basic belgian strong ale base with added spices, ginger, and orange peel. Our first effort, a belgian strong made with demarara sugar back in January (actually, I think it has the characteristics of a barleywine) is really becoming tasty. I'm planning on bringing 6 or so to Maarten's wedding for an added treat.

Finally, I've been negligent in producing new beer vlog entries. Currently, I'm on the 2nd of a 3-part ESB series. I promise it will be up within the next week.

Happy Easter, everyone!