Well, we slipped into 68th place from #66, but that's okay. We're still doing a great job of crunching for mankind.

Regarding brewing: Last weekend I bottled three beers: an IPA, an ESB, and a Pale Ale. Must have done something wrong when mashing the Pale Ale, because the attenuation was pretty extreme, with my F.G. dropping down to 1.004. O.G. was close to 1.050. I'm trying to remember if I added an champagne yeast that I had on hand. Had a few beers while brewing, .... so who knows. But it tastes okay, even though bottled for just a week, although it is very thin on body.

I have a stout fermenting right now, and am tempted to brew another batch of 'something' since I have a couple of empty carboys available. However, I've been working in my garden all day (taking a short break right now), and I still have a lot of other stuff to do.

To mix the subjects of gardening and brewing, I've just looked at my hop plants. They are coming along very well: six cascade, two centenial, and two magnum. Am awaiting the arrival of two more rhyzomes to finish my row. Need to go to Lowe's (lumber and hardware) tonight to get the stuff to build a trellis tomorrow.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

May 14-20, 2007 is American Craft Beer week!

Woo Hoo!

Surly is my new favorite beer. Bourbon Bender (if you can get any) is one of the best beers I have ever had.

It's time for the great American Beer tour!

Hi all team members,

Please see this post about a new WCG feature that allows team captains to send all their team members emails and allows you to send an email to your team captain. However, the feature only works if you update your Profile to allow the emails to be sent.

https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=13063

Please update your profile when you get the chance. (Fred: The captains also have to update their profile as well to allow members to send to them.)

Thanks,
Dave

Thanks, Dave; I just changed my profile to authorize emails.

And a warm hello to everyone else today. Am getting ready to brew today -- probably an oatmeal stout. I brewed a Roggenbier (rye beer) on Tuesday, and made my starter large enough to split to do a second batch but then something came up and I had to stop. Am trying to replenish all the beer my sons and I drank at the lake on Saturday where we had a crawfish boil. Everything was great.

My hop plants are doing very well, so I'm looking forward to brewing with some fresh hops this fall. I have 12 plants (6 cascade, 2 centennial, 2 magnum, and 2 Canadian red vine). I built a 37' long trellis that is only 8' high, and plan to eventually make another one like it to form an arbor so the hops can grow across it instead of up.

Looks like our team has slipped a little bit in its standings, but glad to see that we are still crunching away, slowly but surely. If any of you brew, post some info when you get a chance.

In bottles:
Pale Ale
India Pale Ale
Extra Strong Bitter
American Imperial Stout
Porter

In fermenters:
Irish Red
Roggenbier

Planned for today:
Oatmeal Stout

Cheers.

Bill Velek

Evening guys.