Update… and Off on Vacation!
September 4th, 2008 Posted in Drink, Family, Food, General, Homebrewing, Interests, New House | 1 Comment »It is September 4th, Thursday morning. We have been on vacation this week, taking advantage of the Labor Day holiday. We’re heading to Austin today through Sunday for some much needed relaxation away from the bustling city of Houston. Originally we had planned to go to Puerto Vallarta, but those plans didn’t gel. That’s ok, we love Austin.
While we are staying near downtown Austin, we have reservations for a morning spa treatment at the Lake Austin Spa Resort. Nothing too fancy, just a couple of Swedish massages and enjoying the pools, saunas, and hot tubs. Then lunch on site at the resort and we are off to either a winery or some hiking after that. Maybe both, we’re playing it by ear. Some good friends of ours recently moved to Austin, and if plans work out, we’ll be able to hook up with them. If not, we’ll be going back for a visit. After all, there’s an awesome Brew Shed that is waiting to be outfitted, and I’ll have to help!
The weather is supposed to be bright and sunny - a far cry from what we were thinking at the beginning of this week. Thankfully Hurricane Gustavo didn’t affect our relatives much in Louisiana and then loop around into Texas. There is a limb of a tree that hit the porch roof of Chris’ aunt and uncles house - but no reports of water or flood damage. The storm surge was the big worry, and it wasn’t looking too good for a while. Let’s hope that Hanna, Ike, and Josephine stay away and won’t do much to the Eastern seaboard.
This week was the first time our new housekeeper came. She will be coming every two weeks. The place looks and smells awesome, now. We are also getting the girls groomed more often, now, so both of those should go a long way to freeing us from massive cleaning marathons that we’ve been doing.
Wine & Beer Update. I racked the Cynthiana off the gross lees, and inoculated with the malolactic culture for secondary fermentation - also referred to as malolactic fermentation. This should go for about 3 months. With that, the Apfelwein fermenting, the strawberry wine stabilized and bulk aging, the pinot gris bottled, and the Belgian Tripel aging - I’ve got all wine and beer tasks squared away for a while. Now I’m just waiting for the weather to break so I can get back to brewing some beer!
Au revoir!



