… or at least I was last night after finishing a bottle of it. Weyerbacher’s Blithering Idiot is their English-style Barleywine. I wanted something to drink after dinner and I didn’t want to be overly into it. I had tasted this at one of Nikki’s beer tastings and knew it wasn’t a super complex barleywine, so it was perfect for what I wanted. The beer pours a nice amber color with a decent head. It smells of malty sweetness with some alcohol in there. The taste was nice and sweet with a little burn from the alcohol and some nice fruity qualities. It’s 11% ABV, so it’s a bit strong, but it’s definitely worth it. It’s not the best barleywine, but it’s not the worst. It was perfect for what I was looking for last night… a stronger beer with some flavor that would be good for after dinner. Weyerbacher tends to make beers that are more accessible to the masses than most other craft breweries making bigger beers. This definitely fits in with that accessibility.
Archive for January 21st, 2008
So after consulting with my boss about the conditions of the room where I put my Mr. Beer keg/fermenter, I realized that it was too cold. It didn’t look like anything was happening for a day or 2. The room was my pantry, which is perfect as far as no light is concerned, but apparently at about 60°F, it was too cold. He said it should be closer to 70°F. So I moved it to the top of my refrigerator. As we keep the apartment about 67, it should work better (especially since heat rises). So all last week, I opened the curtains and blinds to let the sun in to heat the apartment when we were at work (programmable thermostat automatically turns the heat off, but the sun does a great job).
After a day on the fridge, I noticed a bunch of bubbles had formed at the top of the beer. Those bubbles remained and I checked when we got back from our ski trip this weekend and they’re gone. I imagine that means it’s done fermenting. Unfortunately, I now need to make sure I have enough bottles and I need to get some caps and a capper (my boss said he has an extra capper that will be included with the stuff he gives me, hopefully I’ll get that this week). So the beer will remain in the fermenter for another couple days while I await the capper. Then it’s time to bottle. I’ve heard cleaning the bottles is the biggest pain in the ass. I don’t look forward to that, but I do look forward to drinking this beer.
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