Another good beer

February 18, 2008

I had a bottle of Beer Valley Brewing’s “Highway to Ale” barleywine-style ale last night.  I wasn’t familiar with Beer Valley, but hey, 10.5% ABV always get my attention.  Plus, Highway to Ale?  Sounds like a song a cockney AC/DC would sing.  But I was impressed.  Very impressed.  It actually didn’t taste anything like a barleywine (at least, none I’d ever had before), but I didn’t care–it was delicious.  I actually wrote my Dad an email and recommended it and did the same over an IM to my sister.  I’d love to visit the brewery and try their stuff there, but Ontario, OR is a bit out of my area, even for a day trip.  I’ll have to go back and grab a bottle of their Black Flag Imperial Stout with a bottloe that looks remarkably like Sculler’s IPA.

Of course, I have no proof anymore that I drank it–I scraped the label off today so I can reuse the bottle for homebrewing.  But I’ll be back at Belmont Station for another bottle or two.

Speaking of homebrewing, I finally bottled my lager yesterday after a few months of waiting.  I brewed it the day before Thanksgiving, racked it into a secondary the day before Christmas, and it survived the rest of 2007, almost two months of 2008, and a move in a car, all without raising the temperature above lagering level.  It turned out to be 6.8% ABV, and the taste out of the fermenter was very nice.  I ended up with two cases of 22 oz. bottles and three and a half 12 oz. bottles.  I’m looking forward to trying it in about…oh, six or seven weeks.  Honestly?  I could probably brew an ale this weekend and have it be ready to drink around the time the lager is ready.

Which actually isn’t a bad idea.  Getting up to 60 degrees during the day, I could probably get away with it.

Posted in Beers, Bottling, Brewing