Beer and Cider Equals a Tipsy Writer
About two years ago, DH and I started making beer and alcoholic cider as a hobby that we could do together--though I rarely drink much. It's a lot of fun and whereas he does all the math related tasks of measuring and keeping track of the fermentation times, I handle the small details that slip his mind as well as bottling the actual beer since he has bad arthritis in both hands. It's just another corny example of how we're two sides of coin, even in everyday activity we balance and help each other. Beer making always remind me of how well we work together.
This year we're making our usual five gallons of hard apple cider with English mulling spice yeast and a newer creation, an orange porter, which if it comes out right should taste like chocolate oranges. But we won't know whether or not it's good until about two or three months after it's bottled and has had a chance to sit and stew. That's the hardest part about beer, waiting it out. Not knowing what your gonna get until the end and then there's no working against it because it's final product.
Well, unless you let it sit for longer, then the flavor gradually changes and morphs into something else entirely. But you have to give it time. Pay attention to it. It's a race to make sure it doesn't go "sour" since beer takes a truly long time to ever go bad. DH and I found a porter and an apple cider we'd done last year tucked away in our fresh bottles for this season--and they'd been bottled two years ago. DH opened them both and drank them greedily with more than a little excitement saying the porter was better than when we'd originally made it. I took a small sip and it was lighter, instead of tasting like dark chocolate it tasted like milk chocolate and flowed past your tongue like a milder beer. It was different and certainly better.
It reminded me of writing. Sometimes all you have to do it wait it out, come back, and everything's fermented while you were gone so it rolls on your tongue and is just delicious. More than you ever thought it could be while originally writing it. Wonder what my writing will taste like next year?
This year we're making our usual five gallons of hard apple cider with English mulling spice yeast and a newer creation, an orange porter, which if it comes out right should taste like chocolate oranges. But we won't know whether or not it's good until about two or three months after it's bottled and has had a chance to sit and stew. That's the hardest part about beer, waiting it out. Not knowing what your gonna get until the end and then there's no working against it because it's final product.
Well, unless you let it sit for longer, then the flavor gradually changes and morphs into something else entirely. But you have to give it time. Pay attention to it. It's a race to make sure it doesn't go "sour" since beer takes a truly long time to ever go bad. DH and I found a porter and an apple cider we'd done last year tucked away in our fresh bottles for this season--and they'd been bottled two years ago. DH opened them both and drank them greedily with more than a little excitement saying the porter was better than when we'd originally made it. I took a small sip and it was lighter, instead of tasting like dark chocolate it tasted like milk chocolate and flowed past your tongue like a milder beer. It was different and certainly better.
It reminded me of writing. Sometimes all you have to do it wait it out, come back, and everything's fermented while you were gone so it rolls on your tongue and is just delicious. More than you ever thought it could be while originally writing it. Wonder what my writing will taste like next year?
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