Two Empty Kegs

I am running a little behind in homebrewed beers, but I will be re-stocked soon. With a summer trip and brewing beers for a few occasions, my home supply has been limited. This was obvious to my friend Kevin when I saw him at the store and he saw store-bought beer in my grocery bag. Not a great sign for a homebrewer (or at least for me).

But fear not, I have two beers on the horizon (both in their secondary fermenters). I have another in my steady line of attempts at a proper English ale, and I have an American Amber (but fermented with the English ale yeast). The bitter was hopped with some UK Challenger and UK Kent Goldings (including a little for dry-hopping), but the main difference was the flaked maize I added this time. Many of the traditional English bitters use maize to round out the taste, so I thought I would try mimicking their technique. I have high hopes for this beer.

The amber ale was inspired by the trip I recently took and the enjoyable amber ales I consumed while traveling. This is my first attempt at this style, so I used a recipe formulated by perusing a number of different standard amber ale recipes for grain concentrations and such. The hops I used were what I had around and amounted to 2 ounces of Northern Brewer for bittering and 1 oz. of Pacific Gem for aroma. Pacific Gem is not a typical aroma hop, so this should be an interesting beer.

In case no one has put 2 and 2 together, I typically prefer the easy-drinking milder beers. I like the occasional bigger, highly hopped, or higher alcohol beer, too, but what I really enjoy is that beer I can drink every day and not grow tired of it.

Oh. And I updated my beers on hand on the sidebar.