Same 'ole Decent Lazy Eye

I was driving home from the HBS yesterday, and my damned iPod had died so I was having to listen to the beloved radio.  As I flipped through the stations, I heard a new found favorite of mine, Silversun Pickups' "Lazy Eye".  The sunroof was open, as were the windows, and the semi-warm spring air was invigorating my being.  My travel partner for the trip (ingredients for a spring favorite, Rye ale) had to suffer through me belting out the end of the song, but at least beer ingredients won't complain at the quality of my singing.  I got back to the house and the 'brewery' was ready to be setup.  I'd just cleaned the garage on Saturday so it was nice to have plenty of space to spread out and get the kettle going.  As for the beer, this makes the 2nd time I've made the Rye.  Inspiration for this one originally came from the Walnut Brewery.  Rod makes a batch every spring and has quickly become one of my favorites.  They're tapping this year's version on the 21st, so swing by for your free pint at 6pm.

This version is going to be a bit 'stronger' than my last batch.  I accidentally added 4.5oz more Rye malt than I needed to, and I upped the hop bill by about an ounce.  We'll see how this turns out, hopefully it'll be a good 'accident'!  Things went fairly smoothly, the only hiccup was that I was tending to my hops plants and was gone a minute too long.  I had a small boil-over as I was getting the temp up for the first hop addition.  All was good though, and everything went well after that.  After getting things sanitized and the wort temp down to 75, I pitched a batch of Wyeast 3333 (German Wheat) yeast and as of this morning, alcohol was being made.  My starting gravity was 1.066 with starting sugar at 8.75%.  I hope to see the final ABV at 6.5% so check back in a week to see where it's at.

If only you could smell the sweetness...