So earlier in the week, my wife informed me that we were having company on Sunday... It seems that my kids and their DI team needed a bit more practice for their upcoming competition. I wanted nothing to do with it - so I told her I was going out to the garage to brew.
I emailed my buddy Micah to see if he'd be available. He confirmed. However, I told my wife that I'd take care of my part of cleaning the house, and we were booked up on Saturday. I called Micah around 1PM, and he was still game...
He barely made it to the local homebrew shop before they closed - 4PM on Sundays. It was just about 5 by the time he arrived... This kind of defeated the original purpose, since I wanted to be out of the house during the practice (which I accomplished anyway by going to the dump!), and this raised a glare from my wife (along with some facetious comments).
But Micah came through for me! He brought her a bottle of wine - Riesling, her favorite - and a bunch of awesome snacks for after dinner. So Micah bailed me out of the doghouse I was going to be in for missing all of the kids' bedtime routine by winning over my wife, and my kids (who think he is their newest best friend).
Micah also brought three kits ready to brew straight from the LHBS, which saved me from having to throw together an ad-hoc recipe. As we broke out the food and beer making supplies, he also gave me the beer he had brought - a Mickey's 24 ouncer. This turned out to be a joke, but I drank it later in the week anyway! After a dinner of fresh brats with fries and good beer, we got to brewing!
He opted for a cream ale recipe, and I brewed the nut brown ale he had brought (supposedly a Samuel Smith clone - which is great since that is really the only nut brown that I choose to buy on a regular basis!). It was a bit chilly by the time we got brewing (and frosty, literally, by the time we finished), so we decided to brew on the deck and split our time between there and the kitchen table.
We went through many different beer tastings in between talking through the brewing process (I think Micah has fewer than 5 batches under his belt since I first got him going last fall) and snackage... We drank some Widmer W'10 - their interpretation of an PNW Black IPA (a lot like a Broken Halo made black as night, with just the slightest hint of roast)... Lagunitas IPA... Maybe Lagunitas Pils or Sierra Nevada Glissade... (I don't remember - I should check the empties!). The highlight of the night was the last bottle we drank: de Koningshoeven Trappist Tripel. It was 750mL of cloudy, golden heaven! And I had Micah almost in tears as I repeated the name repeatedly as we drank it!
As with drinking good beer, it is always better to brew with a friend.
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