Summertime

Dueling Stallions at the Entrance of Brookgreen Gardens

…and the living is easy. We’ve recently returned from our annual summer retreat to Litchfield Beach, SC. The kids enjoyed the sun and sand and spending quality time with Nina, TyTy and Aunt LaLa. My niece, Elena displayed her deft culinary skills coaching Ella through the creation of the traditional red, white and blue (and yellow and green) cupcakes. When I asked Elena to pick out some music on my iPod, she selected Abby Road; I couldn’t have been more proud. Litchfield offers the significant bonus of Brookgreen Gardens, one of the most unique and beautiful places I’ve ever been. The sculptures here are truly amazing, but what is even more amazing is the remarkable gardens that surround them. Ella befriended a Brookgreen bus driver while she was there and enjoyed sitting in first class as we toured the Low Country. The vacation also featured some amazing local SC peel-and-eat shrimp and my discovery of not-so-local McSorley’s Irish Pale Ale. This beer had that great clove taste more commonly found in wheat beers. Try it, you’ll like it.

Speaking of beer… The Dunkleweizen turned out to be quite tasty. The keg seems to be disappearing more quickly than I intended. I wonder if my bucket’s got a hole in it? Production has been great of late. The Red, White and Brew party yielded Big Sky III. This version used the same Homebrew Den kit as I have in the past, but this time I dry-hopped with Citra T-90 pellets (AA 13.5%). O.G. was 1.054 and F.G. was 1.012 when I dry hopped. I’m trying a cold crash this time and plan to keg tomorrow after three days at approximately 38 degrees. Two beers on tap at the same time! Woo hoo! Tomorrow I hope to brew Big Sky IV (I know, not a lot of creativity, but this recipe is close to foolproof). Big Sky IV will be aka Wedding Bliss II as I plan to have this one on tap for Scott and Amanda’s wedding on August 25.

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