Back from Belize and at it again

Just got back from Belize; it was a great honeymoon and I think it is going to be hard to get back into the swing of things. Although yesterday, I put the previously fermenting On Golden Blonde ale and Bellamy Amber ale into kegs. They tasted great and I think the adjustment in the water chemistry really helped. Both of them are a little more complex tasting than usual.  Sounds highfalutin, eh?

I also brewed another one yesterday, Busted Wing IPA...in honor of Jeff and his recent shoulder surgery. I had to use Simcoe leaf hops instead of the pellets I planned on and I didn't like that. Those damn Simcoe pellets are hard to come by! Something went wrong and it boiled down too far in the kettle (or my sight glass was loose) and I had to chase with water into the fermentor to get the volume and correct OG. You can always taste when a beer has been diluted rather than brewed to the correct gravity. It came out more like a pale ale than an IPA. I was disappointed, but it may still be a nice drinker. We'll see, it is fermenting now. I was thinking about maybe dry hopping it with Citra or Cascade, what do you think? I have a solid IPA recipe and next time I will execute it correctly, promise. Might have to sub out the Simcoe for a more readily available pellet hop...I was thinking maybe Bravo...not sure though. Maybe I was just out of whack coming back from vacation or maybe it was because my co-brewer was laid up. I'll let you know how it tastes when it finishes up next weekend!

Toured the Belikin Brewery right before we flew out of Belize. It's amazing to me that there is ONE brewery for the entire country...we're spoiled. The beer is your typical Central American fare...nothing spectacular, but a nice beach beer. By the way, the tour was a rip-off, $15 and 10 minutes long. Although, you did get all the beer you could drink in an hour...I tried to make my money back.