Probably my last post before the bar...

The bar exam hits the last three days of February so I'm really getting into the serious-only-think-legal-rules-at-all-moments-for-fear-one-will-slip-out-before-the-exam study time. I'm putting in about 12-14 hours of practically non-stop studying. It's very boring. Not because it's memorizing legal rules to apply to a test that challenges memorization, application and endurance, because that's what law school was. Here, it's memorizing twenty-five pounds of books-worth of material of which 90% will have little or no direct application in the fields of law I will practice. Ok, I am sure if you have read any part of this blog for the past few months you are tired of my blabber about law school finals, studying for the bar and taking the bar. So am I. So I thought I would just take this time to talk about what I will be writing about/working on once I get past the terrible exam. Here's what will come up shortly:

• The mild from the partigyle is going in the party pig so I will have an opportunity to report whether my party pig-cask conversion technique is successful.
• I will taste the first bottle of year two of the lambic solera in a vertical and update that project with notes about the tasting and where everything is with it.
• I will finally get around to completing my fermentation chamber and show off some awesome pics. 
• I am going to drink some of my commercial sours and feed the dregs to my petrus aged pale clone to help it get sour because it's not doing a very good job right now, even though it's been several months since I added dregs.
• I will report the results of my coffee oatmeal stout.
• I have Belma hops I've been waiting forever to use and will finally get a chance to test them out.
• I have a black IPA, American wheat, ESB and doppelbock to brew.
• I have Hops and Brewing Lager Beer to read and review.
• I have some other general ideas I've been meaning to get in writing. 
• I have some older recipes to publish.
• I am currently doing some work on my yeast project and need to finish up the current round of yeast in fermentors so I can post some more results.
• I will ferment out the remaining strains in my yeast project.
• My hop garden is on the rebound already so I'll post an update or two about it.
• I am heading down to Austin with my wife and friends for a drink-a-thon immediately after the bar so I'll have some new Austin brewery adventures to discuss. This time we are cramming a lot of action in. The plan is to hit Thirsty Planet (again), Jester King (again), Hops & Grain, North by Northwest (maybe), Freetail and if we can score the tickets, the legendary Live Oak. We plan on hitting some beer bar favorites, like Whip In (now a brewpub) and Gingerman but we might sneak in a trip to Pinthouse, a new-ish brewpub with beers brewed by a former Odell brewer. 
• In April I'm heading to Las Vegas with my wife for some more R&R and no doubt a lot of drinking will be involved. I don't want to get into too much beer reviewing but if anything crazy pops I'll be sure to give it some recognition here. 
• I'd also like to flesh out some ideas about possible saison year 2014 that I discussed a month or so ago. 

So lots of good stuff on the horizon. I likely will not be working in the months following the exam while I wait for results (they are published first week of May) but I won't have too much downtime. As you can see, I have plenty of brewing and writing to do. I'll also be sorting out our house and trying to clean up three years of stuff piling up during law school, trying to reconnect with friends from before law school and perhaps most importantly, preparing to open my firm once I get positive results from the exam and receive my license late May. Busy times will continue but at least it won't be more studying for stupid exams. For those of you kind enough to read my blog, it means I will finally shut the fuck up about the law and go back to writing just about beer.

See you in March.