Joey here: We got in a batch of solenoids, piping and insulation today so since we had to cart everything over to the brewery I decided it was time to try another test glass of Capricho Oscuro. If you don't know what I am talking about go here.

Now that we are all caught up I'd like to say this, "Good things come to those who wait." I've slowly been learning this lesson and Wayne has been helping by reminding me when the situation calls for it. It is a lesson that has been all around me, waiting for me to learn it, in the last year, but in the past few months I have really started to understand. Sometimes it just takes time.

The first handful of times I tried the Oscuro I wasn't feeling it. At all. I began to disparage of it ever tasting like I envisioned. Much like my lamenting over our bottling equipment (a problem that now appears to be solved- see two posts previous) all I needed to do was work on it the best I could with the experts and sit back and wait. In the case of the filler it came via Vince Cottone of Sound Brewing Systems, a long time brewing equipment dealer. In the case of the beer, I just needed to have faith in Wayne's brews.

So back to the beer. I'm about as happy with this experiment as I have been with any beer we have done yet. When I first sampled it, the beer seemed almost caustic with wood and tasted like a muddled mess. Subsequent tastings hadn't improved it much. But now about 8 weeks in, it's almost exactly as I'd imagined it. Wayne suspects the yeast dropping out had a lot to with its improvement.

I suspect it was a war for supremacy going on in the darkness of that oak barrel, between five bad-ass beers that wouldn't give an inch. They just had to have a to the death free for all so one single beer could emerge victorious, bathed in the blood flavor of its vanquished rivals. That's my suspicion anyway. But, maybe it was just yeast dropping out.

Regardless, we have decided we'll bring this one to the BA meetup at Oldsmar Taphouse in September. So if you are planning on going you can tell Wayne how much cooler my theory sounds.

Cheers,
Joey Redner