In-Between Days

At the coming-out party for Batch Alef, my friend Monty told everyone about his days as an avid homebrewer. At all times, he said, he'd have two different batches in some stage of preparation and two finished batches in the fridge. "Basically, I wanted to never have to buy beer," he said, adding, "Plus, the neighbors rang the doorbell a lot."

Now, I'd be happy to entertain the neighbors from time to time...but I really don't see Nahum and I carving out the time to brew that often (or that much - there's only so much beer I'd really want to be drinking in a given time frame). But on the point of not wanting to buy beer anymore...that I can get behind.

So what to do in the in-between days? Right now, I'm down to my last bottle of Batch Alef, having quaffed one of the two pictured here with dinner.



As for Batch Bet, I've got a six-pack set aside for Thanksgiving (hands off!)...and that's it. If I suddenly decide I want to take it easy and have a homebrew, I'm kind of out of luck until either the rest of Batch Bet is ready & available...or until Batch Gimmel makes an appearance.



This, of course, is not much of a complaint. And I'm not really complaining. It just seems odd to be making beer five gallons at a time and finding myself low on bottles of brew!

(P.S. - I think this is also on my mind after reading The New Yorker's recent article on "extreme beer." I'm very tempted to go out and pick up a six of Dogfish Head right about now...)