The tides continue to ebb and flow

And the world continues on its merry way around a flaming orb. Such is the way of things. Such is ka. It's been quite a while since we did the 'I hope this brew is good' dance for our weizenbeir. The dance looks like the 'I have to PEE' dance with less urgency. All our dancing and prancing paid off for the weizenbeir was a raging success! It was dark gold and more flavorful than we anticipated. It also had more body and richness than say a pilsner, perfect for a late summer day. A lot has happened in and out of the land of S & S Brewing Co. since then...come with me as we step into the Wayback Machine...

The Amazing and Wonderful Wife and I celebrated our first anniversary!! We took a mini vacation to Castine a beautiful seaside town steeped in Revolutionary war history in Down east Maine. Thankfully you won't stumble across Castine by just getting off the turnpike, it's hidden away in a tangle of state routes and country roads. We were pleasantly surprised to find few people elected to be there when we were there. We wandered around the 'town' and checked out all the cool old buildings, we got stussied up and had a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant. We stayed at a really cool old inn The Manor Inn. Tom and Nancy were super welcoming and wonderful hosts, we highly recommend the place. While we're on the topic of our anniversary the Amazing and Wonderful Wife made me a sweater for our anniversary! She measured one of my t-shirts to ensure the fit, knew what color and style I liked and whipped up a masterpiece. If you haven't seen the pics of me modeling it in GQ (I trust there are precious few of you in this group) you can see the finished product here.While you're admiring everything grab a cup of coffee and peruse the other blog posts, the Amazing and Wonderful Wife is a very insightful and articulate writer.

Also on the celebration front we've had Mr. Cecil for a year! His name is actually Cecil but the outstanding dog trainer we worked with gave him the nickname of Mr. Cecil and it stuck. We've put in a tremendous amount of work to make him a healthy happy balanced puppy and it has finally paid off. He finally got the all clear from his heart worms this fall so we started to bring him to local dog parks and nature trails. We let him run around off leash and visit with other dog friends and sniff everything he can get his cute little nose near. Since we've started our weekly excursions we've seen a dramatic shift in his personality. He's more relaxed when he sees other dogs on our walks and is clearly more comfortable in his own fur. A happy healthy balanced puppy makes for very happy dog parents.

Last but not least the beer. S & S Brewing Co. Ya. We're rolling full steam ahead on the heels of success. We're down to the last few bottles of our autumn creation a caramel apple brew. We started with a dortmunder as a base and added carapils chocolate and black malted barley to the brew to give it a sweeter more complex flavor profile. As the name implies we also added apples, a 1/2 a pound of McIntosh to be precise. The apple taste was very subtle when we first opened them up but disappeared a week after we started drinking them. With Christmas knocking on our door this can mean only one thing. Yes. Just one. Our annual Christmas brew Christmas Cookie Ale makes it move to bottles today and should be ready just in time to celebrate Christmas with the jolly bearded guy in a red suit and Santa Claus. We want to recreate the brew we made last year with a couple small changes. We really enjoyed last year's version but we want the cinnamon and vanilla to shine a little more. We added a little more of each and at a different stage of the process. Even if it doesn't get to where we want it it's still going to be a great beer. We also have some designs for our next creation, an oatmeal chocolate stout. We're looking at going all grain for that monster, but to do that we need a lauter tun. I've found some plans to build one for a minimal cost however we're hoping to find one or a way to get one for even less.