Getting back in the swing of things

The brewing career, with the luminous expanse of summer on the horizon, is beginning to look quite pleasant. I have just packaged the first generation of post-infection-fiasco beers and am getting ready to plan a barley wine and a whole bunch of summer Belgians.

I am currently sipping a "Spring Saison" that is pushing two years old. It is truly elegant. Everything extraneous has aged away: What remains is a huge head atop a burnished gold beer; a subtle twinge of sour-dough bread in the nose, melding with floral notes that used to be fruity; a bone-dry, but rounded, minerally palate. To quote the lamest advertising slogan ever, I'm lovin' it.

Yesterday was a bottling marathon. "Sticky Right Foot" Mead found itself two homes: Most of it is primed and in various clear and glass bottles (good way to get them out of circulation for a while) where it will become sparkling. Some of it is also in corked wine bottles where it should remain relatively still. 1856 Imperial Stout version 2 appears promising; I decided to do two special edition corked bottles for consumption in 5-10 years. The third instantiation of my smoked lager, "Log Jammin' 3," is resting in the basement. The real excitement of the day involved sampling my 18-month-old Flanders Red. It had some cute name back when I brewed it, but it is way too gorgeous for any such moniker now. It developed beautiful, elegant, winey, delicately tannic/oaky flavors and a Roeslare nose to kill for. I put most of it in corked 750's with a stock in 22's and 12's for younger consumption. The hydrometer sample was just stunning so I have high hopes. Please, please, for the love of all things holy, let it not overcarbonate, or undercarbonate, or do anything weird!!!