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I’m back home with two workdays under my belt after a two-week vacation to Montana.  ‘Twas a good trip and I’d be lying if I said I was glad to be back in California.  I guess Montana will always feel like home.  Plus, it turns out sitting on top of a mountain with a fishing pole and no cell signal is better than working after all.  Who knew?

I did manage some beer tastings in Montana.  First up was bud light lime from Dad’s fridge.  As the saying goes, if you don’t have anything nice to say, shut the hell up.

Next up was the Pale Ale and Glacier Ale from Red Lodge Brewing.  The Glacier is the better of the two in my opinion, but both were quite tasty.

In Billings, I made a stroll through town to three different breweries.  The IPA at Angry Hanks is fairly mild and quite drinkable.  I liked it a lot.  The IPA at Carters packs quite a bit more hops punch.  It was more woody and smelled like a pine Forest.  My brother thought possibly Pine-Sol, but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  It was a quality brew.  Finally, we stopped in at Montana Brewing Company and I screwed up and ordered a black and tan with everybody else.  I wish I could report on a particular beer, but I can’t.  I should have stuck to the stout or the bitter.  Oh well.  It was good for what it was.

As luck would have it, our flight home took us through Portland.  The layover allowed me to sample the Red Ale at Laurelwood Brewing.  It was quite good.

We took Frontier Airlines home and I was pleasantly surprised to be offered a craft beer on the flight.  It was a Drop Top Amber from Widmer Brothers.  It wasn’t all that wonderful, in my opinion - a bit thin and possibly too fruity if I remember - but it was a complimentary craft beer on an airplane, so what the hell.

Upon returning home, I quickly popped a bottle of my homebrewed Amber Ale  in the fridge and chilled it down.  I was greeted a few hours later with a satisfying pfft and a quick pull on the glass.  Not bad if I do say so.  It should chill down and clear to a great beer in a couple weeks.  It will be a very enjoyable first attempt.  We’ll see how much tweaking I want to do to it.  I put 12 of the bottles in the fridge and the rest will follow once I thin the pale ale population a bit.

The latest pale ale is just about the finished product.  It is very close to being my standard Raccoon Trail Pale Ale.  I just want to increase the body and mouthfeel/head retention/lacing side of the equation a bit.  The flavors are quite good.  Simple, but good.  I’m going to try monkeying with the next one just to see what happens, but I have a good beer if the monkeying doesn’t result in improvement.

Finally, I have a few of my latest IPA’s remaining.  They have matured nicely in the refrigerator over the past month and are quite good.  I would be perfectly happy if I was served this in a pub.  That said, it isn’t what I want in a stock IPA.  I’ll modify things for next time.

The garage is almost ready to host a freezer conversion.  This will happen in the next few weeks.  I just can’t wait to pull that handle for the very first time.