Joel Johnson Has Him a Blog

Just when I thought I couldn't love Lush more than I already do, they come out with a shampoo made from Irish stout. We got some for a Guinness loving friend for Xmas.

We had the first glass Sunday and it was less than stellar. Good, perhaps, but with medicinal overtones and a disjointed flavor. We tried a few bottles last night and to our surprise found the flavors had come together considerable, as well as smoothing out the harsh note at the end. It's still there, and it doesn't have nearly the explosion of flavor I prefer in my favorite beers, but for our very first batch I'm pretty much as pleased as can be. It's drinkable and that's all we had hoped for.

The next round of super-hoppy Tongue Splitter will probably be ready to bottle within the week. We have another extract/grain kit of that in the fridge, but we have a saison on order that we hope to get going before we do another Tongue Splitter (best to know what we like and don't like before brewing another 5 gallons, I say).

Now the hard part is going to be not drinking all this dubbel before we have a chance to share it with our friends—not to mention the few we'd like to set back to age further.

One strange note: drinking the homebrew seems to make my nose run a bit. I wonder if I have a mild allergy to the excessive yeast?

Kronenbourg commissioned Phillipe Starck to make a special 1664 can and bottle, including a bottle cap that looks like the foam on the head of a lager.

The second batch, a very, very hoppy IPA-type is racked into the secondary. I'm a little worried about this one, but not as much as the first batch, which is now in bottles carbonating.

It tasted a bit flat when I sampled it, but it was only a couple of weeks old at that point. And I don't mean flat like non-carbonated; I mean flat like it was SUPER HOPPY, then nothin'. Hardly any malt at all.

But it's young. I bet it'll be fine.