What's Happening

First off, I want to apologize for the dearth of posts over the past few months. I've been busy and I also have been blogging at Right Michigan, so the posts have been missing in action. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy at making beer, though. So here's a rundown on what's been happening on the brewing front:

The two lagers I made late last year were entered in a couple of contests. One was the National Homebrew Competition, the largest homebrew contest (by far) in the world. Click on the link to see the results (I won a second place in Dark American Lager). Just click on first round winners and find me in the Great Lakes Region and wish me luck in the Second Round!

The second competition was a local one, the World Expo of Beer homebrew competition (the first year of what I hope is a long-lasting tradition). This one took place at the Frankenmuth, Michigan, World Expo of Beer, an annual beerfest and commercial competition. I have attended several of these festivals over the years and have judged at least twice in their commercial competition, where commercial brewers vie for medals in several beer categories. I also judged in the competition I entered, though not the actual categories. I took two second place awards for the two lagers I entered. My new homebrew club took several medals and overall was very successful. Now, if we only get a few other members to enter competitions, we could rock the Michigan homebrewing world!

I made an Irish Red Ale in May and an American Amber Ale a few weeks later. I tried a taste of the IRA, yesterday and it is scrumptious. A malty, yet crisp example of the true Irish Ale (not Killians, which is a lager that masquerades as an Irish Ale). A friend wanted a brew to serve at his daughter's open house and this was what I cooked up. I will be bottling the other five gallons, today.

I should also rack the Amber Ale into a secondary this week and see how that tastes, eh? Stay tuned...