So with everything more or less back to normal in NJ, we sanitized the 2JB rig and a few dozen empty bottles, and got down to the people's business of bottling up our beer.
The first thing we noted when taking the lid off the ale pail: the brew looked good and smelled great. The second thing we noted, after sampling a bit of it: even flat and at room temperature, it tasted great, with a slightly sweet flavor and a slightly bitter finish. No matter what you may think of Obama's policies or politics, there's no denying that he and his staff know what they're doing beer-wise.
Another note: when we racked the beer into the bottling bucket, the yeast left behind was a nearly solid and perfectly flat plug at the bottom of the bucket; when bottling, we noticed little-to-no detritus floating in the brew. Whether this is due to the recipe, the specific yeast we used, or the fact that the Sandy blackout meant it sat for a little longer in a little colder space, we do not know.
So we did our thing, and in about an hour there were 45 bottles ready to go. (It's kind of a shame we didn't end up with the more-symbolic batch of 44, but you bottle the amount of beer you have, not the amount of beer you wish you had. And why would anyone wish for one fewer bottle, anyway?) Now it's fizzing up in the 2JB HQ basement, and we'll be able to lift an ale to the chief by Thanksgiving, with hopefully a few left over for Inauguration Day.
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