Leaky Faucet, TMP and TOMP

It was a housekeeping day at Muckney Brewing today. Both The Missionary Position (MB0018) and the Leaky Faucet Pale Ale (MB0019) needed bottled, and The Original Missionary Position (MB0020) needed transferred to secondary. The day went well overall, with a few minor annoyances here and there. Time for the specs.

I started the day by bottling the Leaky Faucet. After dry hopping it for just over a week, the beer had taken on a much fuller hop flavor and aroma profile. My only worry is that there isn't enough of a caramel malt backbone to balance out the hoppy flavor and bitterness. There's still something odd about the nose, but it is much less that before and will hopefully continue to dissipate over the next few weeks while it's carbing up. I have high hopes for this one, but I'm really skeptical that the final product is going to be anything stellar. We shall see.

After the Leaky Faucet, things started looking up. When I cracked the cork on the carboy holding The Missionary Position, I was greeted with a pleasant bouquet of fruit and spice accenting the sweet caramel malt. The taste revealed the same flavors and some subtle alcohol heat. I'm thoroughly impressed with our first attempt at a Belgian Strong Ale.

What impressed me more was the fact that we were able to duplicate our success with The Original Missionary Position. After I bottled TMP, I saved a couple nips to taste side-by-side with TOMP. They're definitely very close in flavor profile, though TOMP tasted a bit younger (makes sense) and has a more prevalent yeast profile (again, make sense). It makes me happy that they're so similar, so that we will be able to make a comparison between the beer with and without dried mangoes in secondary (2.1 oz. to be specific). We're planning on letting this bulk age for about a month before bottling.

As I alluded to in my previous post, this IS the Week of Beer and Brewing, since I'm on vacation. I was planning on brewing today, but time didn't allow for it. That means Thursday as turned into a two-batch day. I'm planning on doing the Stone Soup XXI Ale (MB0021) in the morning as a PM batch, and then, with Nate's assistance (more like guidance), tackle MB's first all-grain batch, a Saison (MB0022-AG1) using Wyeast's VSS Farmouse yeast. Oh, and I have to catch everyone up on my recent trips to DuClaw and Blue Mountain Breweries.

So stay tuned. Lots to come.

Cheers,

Dave

PS - Oh, yeah, um, if you can, pick up Stone XII. I'm drinking one now. It's tasty.