Update/SF Beer Week (only just slightly)

Weather is looking up and we're planning the next few batches while waiting for our Dax II to finish bottle conditioning.  Speaking of bottle conditioning, we're leaning ever so close to kegging from now on.  It's a bit of an investment, but the time saved and ability to place product elsewhere seem to be more than worth it.

Not quite finalized, but it looks like we're going to do a few variations of the the base recipe used in Oaked Bourbon Porter. 
One will be fermented with cocoa nibs and dried hibiscus.  The other will be a smoked version that will be oaked on the same chips used in the bourbon version.  That Imperial Porter recipe was so solid, we'd like to just keep that exactly the same.  If only we had the volume to do a giant batch, the experiment would be that much easier.  Nano brew is calling.

In any case, the smoked version is already named "Ghost Neck" after the awesomely named and viciously delivered track from the new High on Fire record.  

As for the second portion of the blog post title, anyone from these woods interested in beer knows what just rolled through town.  That would have been SF Beer Week.  The number and diversity of events around the Bay Area was pretty incredible.  Day jobs got in the way of most of it for us, but one day of the Toronado Barleywine Festival and a chance to meet the head brewer from The Bruery at an event at The Alembic.  Love what those guys are doing and that was one of the first selections made for the side job as Beer of the Month coordinator for Plumpjack.  It is equally inspiring and depressing that the head brewer is 25.  Regardless, they unleashed a Valentine version of their Melange on draft and offered some rare bottles of their Papier aged in bourbon barrels for the event.  That we were sitting next to people who drove up from LA just for this week, was further evidence of just how big these events are getting.  It's great and really wish we could have gone for more!  Have to say that the Pliny the Younger hype was a little over the top and that has little (if anything) to do with the brewer.  By all reports, an incredibly successful week for venues, brewers and patrons alike.  Lots of incredibly interesting stuff came out (we got to try a 2007 Supplication on draft!) and the migration to good beer seems to be picking up steam.

Last thing. . .the dog biscuits seem to have been a hit with reports of canines actually learning to speak in order to request more.  We will keep them coming.  Contact us if you want to be included in the next batch.