Boston to Burton (sort of)
As you can see from the October 2009 water report, Boston city water is incredibly soft, meaning it is relatively low in dissolved minerals and ions. The softness is due to the fact that Boston city water is derived mainly from the ~39 square mile Quabbin reservoir, a man-made body of water mainly fed by the Swift River. Where there are seasonal vagaries in the water profile, reading several reports tells me the water profile stays generally within a fairly tight (and very soft) range.Without going in to any detail about the history b

Leon: brewed
A few things happened today at the ol' brewery...Added 5 vials of Wyeast 1056 to the frozen yeast bankDry hopped and racked the 2nd batch of Stonington Pale Ale to secondary. This pale ale smells fantastic already...I can't wait to see what additional layer of hoppiness the dry hopping will impart on the beer. And 1056 is a terrible flocculator. I really wish I could cold crash this beer. I'll hit it with gelatin at the end of the dr

Lots of feedback on Cab Franc/Belgian Ale hybrid
Thanks everyone for sharing their knowledge, experience and impressions on my prior post about including some Cab Franc grapes in a Belgian Golden Ale hybrid beer.I'll write again shortly, but first I'll leave you with a few pictures from the harvest at Saltwater Farm. On this incredibly warm Halloween, the harvest went very quickly, as the yield was about 1/2 of what would normally be expected due to the abysmal weather we had this year. They normally would have harvested earlier in the month, but they tried to get as much sugar in the fruit by leaving them on the vines as long as weathe

Scratch the Chardonnay
Also, I’ve got a Temptation influenced hybrid wine/wild ale in development. This beer will feature fresh chardonnay grapes from a hands-on harvest effort that will occur next month at Saltwater Farm in Stonington, CT.The Chardonnay

Kevin's Lemon: Label brainstorm
Well, my sleep circadian rhythm is totally out of whack due to a recent return from a trip to the Netherlands.So, instead of just lying there awake, in anticipation of busting out Kevin's Lemon in earnest at Kevin's Friday night, I brainstormed a bit on a possible quick non graphic designer software composed label. I want it to be a wide band that sits low on the champagne style bottles, nearly full wrap. maybe I'd get ~3 labels out of the 8.5x11 paper.I'd use some natural paper (left over from various crafts for the wedding). It has a nice subtle cross hatch texture to it. I'd cut it