Anticipation update

Hey, sorry. I forgot to show you the label I made for my pale ale. Here it is:

And I need to fill you in on the weekend's hanami goings-on too. Here's a prelude to that:



OK then. This past weekend I was invited to join a group of hardcore homebrewers in Yoyogi park for their hanami party--that's a cherry blossom party, for those who don't know. It's a time to gather with friends and family under the fluttering cherry blossoms, sip sake, write haiku, and contemplate the fleetingness of existence in somber silence...Errr...NOT!


It's actually a time to pack into an overcrowded park that's teeming with red-faced drunkards sprawled out on blue tarps (or the soggy ground), drink yourself silly while engaging in inane babble with friends and strangers alike, completely ignoring both the lovely blossoms and the fleetingness of existence, and flinging as much trash around as you possibly can. I sound a little cynical, I realize. Actually it's a real gas.


I didn't have too much trouble finding my party. I only knew maybe two people who would be there, but I figured if I just kept on the lookout for a group of large standing men, they'd probably turn out to be the homebrewers I was looking for. Sure enough, after only about 20 minutes lurching through the besotted throngs, and I espied just such a group huddled around a little island of kegs under a tree.


Fortunately I was packing my video camera. I'd brought along some of my 'Anticipation Pale Ale' to wow them with, and I wanted to catch it all on video. I got a great group of expert homebrewers together and filmed them tasting my beer, making excellent comments about it, and everything. It was frickin' awesome. The only thing that would have been more awesome is if I'd pressed the 'record' button instead of the 'stand-by' button. Man, that would've been awesome. I totally could have shared the triumphant moment with you. Or at least proved that I wasn't making this up. Rats.


That blew, actually.


The party itself was a jolly good time though, and I made some new friends, whom I'm sure I'll see again at next year's party (and not before). I tried my best to impress the hardcore homebrewers who were hosting the shindig, so that they would give me the password to their secret hide-out and let me join them for wild homebrewing bacchanals and stuff. They proved to be wily and elusive, however, and the most straight-forward comment that I got regarding that was that I'd have to prove myself. I did have my Leatherman multi-tool on me, and I looked around for a grizzly to take on, or maybe a raging river to get across, but no dice. 'Huh,' I mused, 'I may just have to make some more really kickass beer instead.' And with that I put the whole idea on the shelf.


Tonight I racked the amber to the secondary. We at M&A brewing are calling it 'Bekko' Amber Ale, or 鼈甲アンバーエール in Japanese. That means 'amber' like tortoise shell style amber. We wanted to go for 'Kohaku', which means real amber, as well as the color amber. We thought it was kinda cooler, but those bastids at Ebisu already beat us to the punch with their own so-called kohaku beer. The bastids.


Anyway, this bad boy bekko has been in the primary for 15 days, and was still belching out a bubble every few minutes. I wondered if I shouldn't start worrying about a bacterial infection--I think they call it a 'gusher bug'--or not, but the smell and taste don't seem weird, so I'm rollin' with it. Also the gravity hasn't changed for several days, hanging right at 1.014, which it most def-o-nately wouldn't if an insane yeast posse had indeed taken over, consuming everything in its path.


So I'll keep you posted. Bottling next Sunday. Woo-hoo! Bottling! My favorite!