Hot damn, have I ever been busy lately. Got a new job and my mom and her cool boyfriend Ed were in town for a few days for the holiday. Which is all fine and dandy, but these things tend to get in the way of the things that really matter... beer. Yesterday I had the whole day off and a bunch of recently finished malt, so I got up at the crack o' ten and got busy brewing! TWO BATCHES! Last week I came to the decision that I want to pick two beers that I always keep on tap, and one rotating tap. Who were the lucky winners for a permanent spot in the keezer?

Recently I made a porter. Good news: ITS FRIGGIN AWESOME.
I decided that this beer will be one of my first launch beers when I get around to starting up a brewery. At 6 percent, it also makes a fantastic winter warmer, so I decided it has earned itself a life long spot in the kegorator.

I also brewed up a pale a couple weeks ago to start the search for a house pale. I have not yet kegged it, but I did sneak a sample last week and it blew me away, so I decided that it would be the lucky winner of the second permanent spot.

Of course, I will be tweaking these recipes, but when you are malting all of your own ingredients it really helps to be able to plan ahead as far as possible. The grain bills for these beers are extremely simple, so now I know I won't have bags of random specialties that I decided to make on a whim with no particular beer in mind. The best part is neither of them use any crystal malt, which is a pain in eh @$$ to make.

Back to the brew day. All went well, except for a stuck mash at the end of my second brew. I did the pale first, and the porter second. It was FREEZING outside, so I brewed in the house, and discovered that...

HEAT STICK+RANGE=OMG HELLA HEAT BOIL BOIL BOIL
Sparge water and wort got up to temp SO fast. It was amazing.

Im typing this at work, and right now they are both in the tub cooling to pitching temps. Can't wait to get home and toss some yeast in those bad boys. Beer rules.