12/08: And after further review...
It turns out Dented Cap Brewing, as an entity, won't be coming to fruition just yet. I talked to a friend of mine who knows the guy who started his own brewery out of his home around here, and he told me that the only reason Paul's able to do it out of his home is because his home is actually zoned commercial. I'd need the real estate to do this in, not to mention the proper equipment, licensing fees for the labels, etc. The proper licenses from the state and feds would run me 1k-2k, and apparently that's the cheap (and somewhat easy) portion of the whole process... It's still a neat thought, though, you know? Something to keep in the back of my mind for when I win that lottery jackpot...
In other news, I finally did it. I booked my vacation for the late spring, to Brussels. Yes, Brussels. It hasn't quite sunk in for me yet, but I think it will once I pay the charge bill for it. :-) I'm heading there in April, and waiting on a copy of a book all about Belgian breweries as we speak. I figure maybe a couple of brewery tours, maybe a couple of day trips... but this is what I've been putting the money on the side for, you know? I don't have a wife, I don't have any kids, right now, I'm still living for myself. This trip, my trip out to Denver in the fall for GABF, all that kind of stuff - if I don't do it now, then when can I do it? :-)
Everything else is going pretty well, that I can think of - I have a brewery coming down to the next beer club meeting to do a tasting for us, and I have a pale ale in the fermenter as we speak. This one's kind of an experiment - a fairly standard pale ale, but I'm going to add in a pound of orange blossom honey tomorrow night, most likely. Wanted to let it get a little further through the fermentation before I added in more sugar. My holiday beer this year isn't too bad, just a little heavy on the cinnamon. Note to self - next year, STAY with the quarter teaspoon - don't up it at all. And I finally realized what I did wrong with my vanilla porter from last year - the wrong kind of vanilla. I used bourbon vanilla beans instead of Madagascar vanilla beans - live and learn.
Alright, that's enough for now - I'm a little tired and am going to turn in a bit early, in hopes of shaking what's left of this cold. Lots of tea FTW. I'm going to try to do more short updates like this, though, instead of the occasional epic update like I had been doing. Makes sense, yes?
-CB
In other news, I finally did it. I booked my vacation for the late spring, to Brussels. Yes, Brussels. It hasn't quite sunk in for me yet, but I think it will once I pay the charge bill for it. :-) I'm heading there in April, and waiting on a copy of a book all about Belgian breweries as we speak. I figure maybe a couple of brewery tours, maybe a couple of day trips... but this is what I've been putting the money on the side for, you know? I don't have a wife, I don't have any kids, right now, I'm still living for myself. This trip, my trip out to Denver in the fall for GABF, all that kind of stuff - if I don't do it now, then when can I do it? :-)
Everything else is going pretty well, that I can think of - I have a brewery coming down to the next beer club meeting to do a tasting for us, and I have a pale ale in the fermenter as we speak. This one's kind of an experiment - a fairly standard pale ale, but I'm going to add in a pound of orange blossom honey tomorrow night, most likely. Wanted to let it get a little further through the fermentation before I added in more sugar. My holiday beer this year isn't too bad, just a little heavy on the cinnamon. Note to self - next year, STAY with the quarter teaspoon - don't up it at all. And I finally realized what I did wrong with my vanilla porter from last year - the wrong kind of vanilla. I used bourbon vanilla beans instead of Madagascar vanilla beans - live and learn.
Alright, that's enough for now - I'm a little tired and am going to turn in a bit early, in hopes of shaking what's left of this cold. Lots of tea FTW. I'm going to try to do more short updates like this, though, instead of the occasional epic update like I had been doing. Makes sense, yes?
-CB
under skin122 wrote: