See you after Austin/Happy (Early) Labor Day

Yep, tomorrow I leave for equally-as-hot Austin for a beer-tastic weekend. Very excited and looking forward to share my brewery experiences. I'm sorry I've used this blog for so much beer reviewing/brewery reviewing but I would like to think some people find the information interesting. Plus, it's sometimes helpful for me to go back and see what I did or what I thought about things. So if you don't like it, tough. Actually, this will be my last out of town trip for a while so post-Austin I'll resume focusing the conversation on homebrewing. I still have some recipes and other posts to get up so I'll try to get those typed up sometime soon.

In other, actual homebrewing news:

• The spelt saison is looking good after spending a couple days in the heat. I stuck it in the garage Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday it got up to 97 F so in the garage it was probably in the lower 90s. I probably should have got it out there earlier in the week to get some of those warm temperature yeast flavors but I think at least this way the Dupont strain can get the beer fully attenuated. I am still looking at bottling on Labor Day.

• My hop plants are resuming growth, especially the mt. hood. It is sending out all sorts of new bines, the existing bines are growing a little more and side arms are shooting out everywhere. Unfortunately it's probably too late in the season to see enough growth to get any hops (there are no burrs out there) but we probably won't drop into the 80s until mid-October so there is a slight chance. If not, well, I'll look forward to homegrown hops next year.

• The bottle of Adelbert's Scratching Hippo witbier was a success for bottle harvesting, so that means I can finally brew the wit I meant to brew all summer on Labor Day. Well, hopefully. I know I have a lot of school work and I'll need to grocery shop and other boring housework, too.

 Have a great Labor Day!