So it has been a while since my last post. Since then I attended a Stone Brewing Co. tap takeover at Hanger 9 in Carbondale. Here are the unedited notes from that night.

Started out with a flight of 4 a 16th anniversary infused with tea leaves An imperial English IPA a smoked porter suitable for cave aging and the sublimely righteous with espresso beans. Tea leaves noticeable but subtle. IPA lower aroma good hopp flavor with a resinous finish. Smoked bourbon barrel awesome bourbon flavor and warmth chocolaty and smooth. The self righteous was lighter than expected hoppy almost cedar flavors with a clean finish. On to levitation malty almost chocolatey huge flavor dry awesome and lower alcohol. Hello Stone Ruination my old friend. Balanced this beer is not drinkable yes, for a hop head. This beer screams hops in your face and bold. Back to the subliminally self righteous without espresso this time. It is still drinkable and cedar flavored but minus the chocolatey coffee flavor. Ok after a few more went back to the smoked porter wow the smoke really stood out this time.

Needless to say my memory is a little foggy after that. It was a great night though.

As for brewing I have, after multiple requests, rebrewed the Raspberry Burr-eh for the holidays. My efficiency was a little low so I did a longer boil and ended up with about 4 gallons of 1.072Sg imperial blond ale. The raspberries, all 4 lbs of them,  were added 12/3/2012 the gravity at the time was 1.012 for about 7.41% ABV at the time now it goes up after the added sugars from the Raspberries.

Also on 12/3/2012 I brewed an experimental beer I have been wanting to do for some time. Smoked, Oaked, and Stoked an imperial oak aged smoked coffee stout. Yes this is my version of a homebrewers kitchen sink beer. Again my OG was drastically low at 1.070 where an estimated 1.090 was expected. I have to learn to compensate for lower efficiency in my bigger beers for one. I also wonder if batch sparging would be the way to go for bigger beers due to the compaction of the grains. I will have to do this one again to make sure it could be what I want it to be. I will be kegging the Raspberry 12/10/12 and transferring the S.O.S. to secondary on the Oak spirals 12/17/12. Updates will be given upon tastings.