This weekend's birthday party went great and the UNO was a big hit. In fact the 2.5 gallon keg was drained and I had to go to some back up bottles of Summit. The response was very good, and it seemed like most people enjoyed the subtle orange flavor that came through. This was also the first time I used the portable kegerator, and it went pretty well. I think I need to get the CO2 charger thing down before I use the kegerator again in August at my fantasy football draft. The problem seemed to be with the amount of CO2; I had to shoot some CO2 in a couple times to keep it flowing, I'm thinking tha the 12 gram canisters I'm using don't work as well as the 16 grams it came with. It seems like some CO2 escapes out the side of the charger right after it punctures, where the same thing didn't happen with the bigger canisters. More on this to come...I'm going to switch back to 16g canisters (of course I just bought a box of the 12 gram) and see if it makes a difference. Of course eventually I need to just buy a 5lb CO2 tank and regulator, but cash flow is light right now.

Hopshot IPA: I bottled this today with some help from my brother-in-law. It tasted great and I'm glad I dry hopped with some cascade hops at the end, because the aroma blended nicely with the citrusy hop flavor in the beer, much more balanced than when I transferred it. But that brings up a question I pose to those out there who dry hop. I'll take some suggestions on what's the best way to do it. The first time I dry hopped I used whole hops, which seemed to work fine, but pieces gunked up the siphon and seemed kind of cumbersome. Every other time I've used pellet hops and they've worked fairly well. However a couple times I've had problems with pieces of the hops making their way into the beer. Often if I've had to move the carboy, and the hops float around in there, they can become suspended and I have a couple of vegetated bottles. I've heard bad things about using a hop bag, mostly that once the hops expand, the bag become impossible to get out of the neck. I've seen people rig up a string to the bung, etc. Thoughts for those of you who dry hop? What do you do and what has worked?

Yinzer: I made my Yinzer Lager in February and was fairly happy with the results. I saved a big 32 oz bottle to share with my brother-in-law, since I made it for him. I cracked it open tonight, and its great! Of course the lesson as always, patience is a virtue I have not learned in five years of brewing. The months of sitting in the fridge have mellowed out the hops that came through before, and its a smooth sweet lager with some nice maltiness and crispness. My wife's comments were "ridiculously better than before" and "when are you going to learn patience?" She's right on both accounts, and of course, I wish I had more of the Yinzer for the summer months.

More to come this week.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

PS: Close circuit to Bob's Woodshed: Where you at man? I have some beers to send your way, and more importantly miss your great beer reviews.