A Quick Review......

Now that I have decided not to be lazy anymore and actually keep up with this blog, my first item of business is to review the beer I started to talk about earlier in this blog.  Garrison's Red Cap was born, brewed, bottles and drunk.  Here is the official review..........It wasn't great.  Sorry Travis.  But then again, I will say that it was a number of things that led to the down fall of this brew.  Time and freshness, as I am now realizing, really and truly plays a role in how well a beer will taste and how well it will be received.

You can see above, two of my friends and co-workers helping me bottle Garrison's Red Cap, we truly do it the easiest way as you can see.

After about 7 days I opened one beer to check the carbonation.  To carbonate your home brew in the bottle, a "catalyst" is needed to boost the yeast's activity in the last 7-14 days.  This will increase the pressure in the bottle and allow for the beer to "self carbonate."  I made the mistake of bottling too early one time, and ended up with no beer.  All the bottles I had blew up from too much pressure, so please ensure your beer is finished in the Primary fermenter before bottling, some use a secondary fermenter.  Anyway, back to the beer review.  Above you can see the first beer opened from Garrison's Red Cap.  At first I was really excited to try the beer, preliminary tests from it were promising.  In a few words.....The beer was sour.  I don't know how a beer can go sour, but my guess is the ingredients were bad.  You see, both Travis and myself are in the military, he was about to move and I was getting deployed to Afghanistan as mentioned in a previous blog.  Before I was deployed for 6 months, Travis brought me the ingredients to brew the beer because he wouldn't be able to, and I didn't get the chance to brew before I left.  So, they sat in my garage for 6+ months until I was able to brew.  This is what I believe led to the downfall of this beer, the recipe was good, the ingredients were bad.  I feel this beer needs to be re-brewed with fresh ingredients and it will be a great beer.

It does look really good though, very photogenic

Another picture of the beer, only this one was allowed to clear a bit before opening.  FYI, Leinenkugels is one of my favorite beers, hence the glass.  I'm sure you will see more of them along the way

This one is really for Travis, he knows this view very well.  Its a picture of his beer, on my back patio in ALASKA, while i was grilling, in the rain.  Can't beat it!

Well, I will be writing a few more, keep reading and I I'll see ya next time......