On momenumum.

Things are ticking along nicely here at Ease Down the Road headquarters. We're still in that phase when everything is new and exciting, and ideas are bouncing round the shed, gaining traction here and floating out the window there.

People keep asking if this home brewing operation has a name (and by people I mean my wife and Luke's wife). I'm not too fussed either way, but Bec and Ellie kept throwing up suggestions, typically related to our two-year-old girls given we all met through the local mothers group when the little'uns were just a few months old.

Luke's little girl Evie has the moniker Duck, and our little one Audrey has a beautiful streak of ginger through her hair, so Ginger Duck Brewing was an obvious choice, but given the wonderful Red Duck Brewery is just up the road in Ballarat it wasn't sitting too well with me in regards to originality. Duck n' Ginge Brewing was the other option, and then Bec threw out Ninja Duck Brewing. Has a nice ring to it I reckon. It's still sitting with Luke, swirling round and round like a cloudy ipa, still in that moment when you've taken your first sip and you're not sure whether your taste buds are going to sing with delight or howl in protest.

We've managed to drink all but one or two of the original batch of pale ale. It improved slightly, but always held onto that green apple tinge that, while not being so over powering as to make it undrinkable (in fact, it was only barely noticeable by the last few bottles), was enough to have me frustrated by the end of each glass, and more determined to make high quality brews.

After the ridiculous delays prior to brewing our second batch, I was keen to generate some momentum in the shed, and so followed up the second batch by brewing a batch of Bec's Amber Ale on my own one Monday night. It went reasonably smoothly, until I took the original gravity reading prior to pitching the yeast and was shocked to see it only register at 1.020 (this is extremely low).  That will happen when you forget to put the can of liquid malt extract in. I added it just after the yeast, and tried to gently stir it in without getting too much oxygen in there. Fingers crossed it's going to be ok.

That batch was followed a few days later by bottling the second batch of pale ale, and then a few days after, thanks to the donation of another fermenter from a retired home brewing friend, we brewed up a batch of Evie's Special Bitter; the perfect spring weather enabling us to have two fermenters going at once, with one sitting inside at a solid 18 degrees. The brewing process has become much smoother, mostly because I'm no longer running around like the proverbial chook without a head. Looking back now, I was pretty stressed for those first few batches. Maybe stressed isn't the right word, I certainly didn't feel stressed, but man, I was all over the place running around the shed like Audrey after a sugar hit.

Yesterday I bottled Bec's Amber Ale, so we've currently got a Pale Ale and Bec's Amber Ale conditioning in the bottle, Evie's Special Bitter in the fermenter, with plans to get a lager going as soon as possible, and maybe a California Common after that.

It's great to have some momentum going, which is only helped by drinking some inspiring local craft brews, recent favourites being the Feral Hop Hog, Hawthorn Brewing's Amber and Pale Ales, and Holgate's amazing chocolate porter, the Temptress.

What I'm looking forward to the most at the moment is brewing a beer that I'm proud enough of to give away. Let me know if you want some.