Vacation Over. Back to Brewing

After a few much needed days away from Lincoln, reality has set in once again. We arrived in Chicago on Sunday morning and were back in Lincoln on Wednesday evening. After picking up a very happy dog, it was time to get ready to go back to work, at least for me. Fortunately, only two work days until the weekend.

As I said in my last entry, it is time to brew once again on Saturday. This time around I will be shooting for a wheat beer just in time for lawn mowing season. My target is something like the Sam Adams Summer Ale which says on the bottle is a filtered wheat with a hint of lemon. I will not be filtering this batch, as I do not mind some haze, nor do I have the ability or know-how to do it. I was a bit apprehensive about purchasing the sampler case of Sam Adams brews, but have been pleasantly surprised. It was picked up at the local Sam's Club as an impulse buy, but at least the bottles are reusable. It contains four bottles of the following six brews: Boston lager (the only lager that I will buy), Light, Hefeweisen, Cherry Wheat, Pale Ale, and the Summer Ale. The Cherry Wheat is actually decent for a fruit beer, and the Pale Ale is also very tasty. If you don't want to serve the Anheuser or Miller products to your friends (WHO WOULD???) I can recommend serving this. There is enough variety to satisfy a very broad spectrum of tastes, even if there are hop heads like me in the group.

On a completely different note, if you are a baseball fan and ever have the opportunity, take a guided tour of Wrigley Field. It was one of the highlights of our vacation, and it was like the mothership calling me home. Our tour guide had also been on the Fenway Park tour and spoke highly of it. It is also a fundraiser for the Chicago CubsCare charities, so the money goes to a good cause. We also did a cruise on the Chicago river highlighting the architectural marvels of the Chicago skyline. On a 90 minute cruise, or tour guide shut up for about 45 seconds while the boat turned around, and that is a good thing. He really knew his facts, and had enough of a sense of humor to keep us interested. Even though it was about 50 degrees with a 30mph blowing off Lake Michigan we still enjoyed ourselves.

The IPA is almost gone, and the vanilla porter is very tasty. Get to go shopping at Kirk's tomorrow. WOO HOO!!