Bottling and Waldo Lake

Last Sunday, before the Super Bowl, I bottled my first batch! Everything went pretty smoothly, and I now have 48 bottles of Irish Red conditioning. In about a week and a half, they will be ready to drink! I'm really excited to try my new beer, and if the pre-bottling sample I tried is any indication, it will be goooood!

I'm going back home for the weekend, but my next batch should be ready to bottle Sunday. So, I will most likely bottle it either Sunday night after I get back or on Monday. One day after it is ready won't hurt anything, so it should be fine to rest over the weekend. I'll try to find someone to take pictures this time, but it was just too hard to do everything I had to do AND take pictures. Don't worry though, you'll see the long, drawn-out bottling process soon enough!

Also, after I bottle The Innkeeper, my primary fermenter will be free to house my next beer! This beer is called the "Waldo Lake Amber Ale." It was requested by my sister, and it sounds like it will be very good! The Northern Brewer website says that it "shows off a brilliant russet-amber with a cap of white and draws you in with a nose of citrus, lemongrass, and malt. A classic combo of northwest hops offsets a dense, chewy, caramelly sweetness and gets you ready for a big finish."

Interesting note, I actually talked to the guy who developed this recipe. His name is Denny, and he is a very active homebrewer and regular contributor to the Northern Brewer forums. He talked about the reason he formulated this recipe on that website.

I know some crazy people, but one of the craziest is my good friend Mel Lemay. Every year, she runs the Where's Waldo 100K Ultramarathon around Waldo Lake in the Oregon Cascade Mountain Range. The race starts at an elevation of 5120 feet, and goes to over 7800 feet at points. There's a total of over 11,000 feet of elevation change over the course of the race. You have to be crazy to do that! Several of us go camping at the lake to give moral support when she runs and I developed this recipe to her tastes so shed have something to look forward to at the end of the race. Its a smooth amber ale... not too hoppy, but with enough bitterness and hop flavor that the rest of us enjoy it too.

Anyway, I'm really excited to brew this beer. It will also be my first time to use a yeast starter. This will allow the original gravity (and the final ABV) to be a little higher than my first two batches.

I hope my sister likes it! I'm sure I will!