As soon as we finished up brewing yesterday we took a road-trip. We had to drive down to Winston-Salem to take Carrie's mother to pick up her new car. While we were there we visited Foothills Brewpub. Justin had been there before, but it was a first for everyone else.
It was a nice brewpub: open and exposed brick walls, wooden floors, restaraunt up front, bar & brewery in back. Since we had the kids, we were up front. They have several different beers, more to Justin's liking (hop-head) than Carrie's. Though we both did agree that their Total Eclipse Stout was pretty good, and we brought home a growler of that. Their Torch Pilsner was drinkable, but had a strong aftertaste that reminds one of "commercial crap" beer. Can't quite put our fingers on which one, but we all agreed that it was there. Their Pilot Mountain Pale Ale reminded us of Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale. I'd like to see them both in a side-by-side tasting to see just how closely the taste really is. Justin also had a glass of their Seeing Double IPA and really liked that one. It is one of their seasonal beers, which Carrie was sad to not see their Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout currently available, and was just as sad to find that they didn't even had any of the t-shirts for that beer in stock since the logo was pretty snazzy.
Back home today we went out and took inventory of our hops that we have growing. The Cascade and Magnum hops are doing really well, with the Kent Golding finally seeming to be getting a foothold in growing. We were really late in planting our Fuggles hops, but they've broken the ground already, so now we're just waiting for them to take off. We will try to take some photos of the hops to post. The dogs have really given us a challenge with growing the hops, as they keep getting stuck in the twine. Talk about hair of the dog beer!!
And, finally, we've had to invest in a college-style mini-fridge. Our last batch of Pale Ale (or not-so-pale-ale) was exploding when you opened it because, due to summer heat, it was getting over carbonated sitting back where we keep beer. We're hoping that a day or two of chilling will stop the exploding problem. Luckily, it only "exploded" when you opened it, so no bottles have been lost and no real damage done. Also, it was our not-so-pale-ale, one we weren't too impressed by, so it could've been worse .... though the loss of any beer is always a sad and solemn occaission. Hopefully this will work though and solve the problem. Of course, living in our nice, 100+ year old house brings about the usual "delight" - needing to find a converter plug. The plug for the fridge is 3 prong, the available outlet is only two. A trip to Walmart this morning only yielded an empty box, not yet re-stocked, and so alas, no remedies - yet!!
