First post! Woo Hoo!

As we amp up our homebrewing, Rachael and I are going to record our exploits whilst making shitty puns! We'll include recipes, observations, thoughts, musings, and philosophies on all things beer, mead, and perhaps later wine and distilled potables (hopefully potable). There will also probably be some food interjections and a superfluous amount of pictures of Noodle and Cubbins navigating their way into small containers and making cute faces.

We'll probably throw some retroactive brews up as well as recording the beer-and-mead session scheduled for this weekend. I just read yesterday that mead-making is technically called "mazing", so perhaps we'll call tomorrow's session "marewing" (because "brazing" sounds too much like, well, browning and stewing meat). I'm also thinking about using the decoction method for the Carrie Nation Double IPA, but it may not be worth it, as it's not a beer where you really want to accentuate the malty flavors.

Anyway, until then!

PS- For posterity, I thought I would list the extract and partial-grain beers we have made up to this point. None of them really stand out, but they compose a collective experience that has brought us to this point...

NoodAle (12/2008) Straightforward amber extract beer from the Beginner's section of The Joy of Homebrewing. Used "hopped" extract, dry yeast, and an awesome label. Innocuous, light body with an ABV around 3.5%

Untitled Brown Ale- (2/2009) Extract base with some crystal malt. I think we found a bottle of this six months after making it and it didn't taste half bad.

Witbier (4/2009) Wheat extract with orange peel and coriander. Pretty good, but the wonderful summer Witbier freshness didn't really pop.

Uckleduckfay Oatmeal Stout (7/2009) Attempted Papazian clone, as we weren't really prepared for step mashing or decidedly more advanced, all-grain techniques. Botched the lactose addition by not dissolving completely in water, so came out with lactose clumps instead of fuller stout body. Finished them off at a summer party where Steve said he would "pay for one of these in a bar". Drunken kindness no doubt, but at least the evidence is gone and he remembers it that way!