| Snow in April in Central Texas????? Well it is Easter Weekend and one that I am sure to never see again in my lifetime. It has snowed! In Central Texas! In April!
My wife said some artical in the local paper said this is the first time we have had snow in April since 1920 something. Just last week we hit 90 degrees and I was wishing I had the pool set up so I could get in. We didn't have any firewood ready to go and all our winter stuff had been packed away. To top it off the power went out last night around 10:00 PM and they didn't get it back on until around 9:00 AM so without any way to heat the house it was rather cold this morning.
So what does this have to do with home brewing you ask. Not much it is just rare for us to get snow at all but to get it in April is just WOW!
But to make this also about homebrew...
I did finish off the last of a keg yesterday that was an experimental using a touch of green tea with an amber ale. In the spirit of spring I dubbed it the Grean Man Ale. While it wasn't bad it wasn't anything to really brag about either. There have been thoughts on how to improve upon it so maybe next spring I will try again.
The cold last night did concern me because I had just started another experimental this week that is still setting in the primary. I was afraid the rapid temp change may have caused my yeast some fatal problems but so far it is still bubbling away. This batch I am doing was at first a personal joke. In a post on this site someone was saying to use oatmeal to help in head retention. For some reason at the time I read the post I thought of putting brown sugar and cinnimen in it to make a breakfast ale. This was just a crazy thought that was only to amuse me for a moment, but then after thinking about it long enough I figured why not. So at this time I have my first, possibly last if it ain't good, breakfast ale going.
This is also kind of an experiment in how well oatmeal helps in head retention. If it works then I will be buying some barley flakes for my stouts.
__________________ Nothing like kicking back in a lawn chair on a beautiful morning with a mug of dark ale to start the day out right. |