this past weekend I got back into brewing shape and got around to picking up some interesting bottles.

• I swung by my new (and surprisingly well-stocked) bevmo in torrance for some goodies and walked out with more than I had anticipated.
• they had all the new goose island brews, a good lost abbey selection (including angel’s share ’09), and even had the ever-elusive aloha plenty for a pretty decent price (6 or 7 bucks).  to think that i was kicking myself for passing up a bottle at some bootleg redondo liquor store for $12…
• I brought the goose island sofie and a bomber of lagunitas’ wilco tango foxtrot to PR’s byob bday. I immediately fell for sofie – it had a great complexity, finish, and effervescence.  WTF was great too, it reminded me of stone 13, one of my all time favorites.
• on sunday I decided to dust off the homebrew gear and whip up a quick batch of kolsch for some upcoming BBQs/get-togethers.
• I stuck with my usual extract recipe but did my first full-wort boil in a turkey fryer outside.  getting to a boil was a piece of cake but cooling a full 5 gallons with my immersion chiller was an exercise in patience to say the least, especially after seeing CB’s therminator in action.
• I gave it a minute of O2 at 75F and tossed my starter in, and the airlock was chugging away by the end of the night.

• oh, and AP and I adopted a new brew assistant – meet the captain, supervising the brew premises: