Gettin' Back to Business

So, I picked up the new car about 2 weeks ago and have been driving it everywhere.

Now that I've started to come down a little from the New Car High, I can start getting back to business.  I will be kegging my English Pale tonight and using sugar instead of CO2 to carbonate the brew.  I've had too many issues with CO2 carbonating so I will only be using the CO2 to purge the keg of O2 and letting the sugar do the work for me.  Keep your fingers crossed for me and I will let you know how it turns out in another 2 weeks.  In the meantime, I will be brewing another beer because I have one more keg that I can fill.

New Auto

Just stopped down to the local Chevy dealer and got a new 2012 Chevy Sonic for my new beer delivery vehicle.  Now I just need a "Home Brewed Beer On Board" bumper sticker.

Research

I want to brew an IPA next and would like to tweak the kit I'm going to buy just a little.  So tonight I'll be starting the 2nd best part of brewing.  Researching the style of beer you will be brewing next.  (In case you were wondering, the best part is tasting your finished beer)  I stopped by the store and bought a 6 pack of IPA's from a variety of breweries that I will be drinking for the next few days to try and determine what kind of hops I want to brew with.  This IPA will be more if an Imperial IPA 'cause I will be using a little less than 1 pound of hops.  I will be aiming for 6-7% ABV as well.

The label

Made a rough draft of a beer label for my brews last night.

New Mash Tun

Picked up a new 10gal cooler from home depot today.  When I got it home I took the hardware off the 5gal and stuck it on the new cooler.  Now we have a respectable mash system.  A 10gal mash tun and a 5gal HL tank.  I just need to get a new fitting for the 5gal and a sparge arm then we will be good to go.

Procrastination

I was just thinking about procrastination not too long.  I found that there are stages that lead to it.  They are as follows:
1.  Determination - Having a goal and plan of attack
2.  Boredom - Finding that what you are doing is "taking forever"
3.  Distraction - Some unrelated stimuli that deters you from your plan of attack
4.  Indifference - Embracing the distraction and deciding to "put off what you can do tomorrow" and being ok with that

Peanut Butter Porter

I just keged my Peanut Butter Porter on Monday and it's carbonating in the closet next to my EPA thats fermenting away.  Should be ready to drink in a day or two.  Time to talk to the fiance about getting another fridge to keep my kegs in.  Unless I can make some new shelves for our kitchen fridge and squeeze the keg in there...   Na, that won't go over well with her and it would take up way too much room in there.  It's a small fridge.  Time to check out craigslist.