It’s also interesting how different a beer smells on first siphoning it from the carboy to the bottling bucket – very yeasty and almost musky – from how it smells after you add the corn sugar and the beer gets a little air. After adding sugar, the nut-brown started to have nutty aromas that didn’t exist before. Wacky!

Now I wait a couple of weeks for the beer to condition and carbonate, then I’m ready to drink it! Here’s hoping it’s a toast to Change and not to Mavericks…

I also determined last week that there aren’t enough brown ales on the market, which means it’s time to make more of my own. I’m trying a new recipe from Charlie Papazian’s Microbrewed Adventures for Puritanical Nut Brown Ale. It promises to be carmely and smooth, with a nutlike flavor, roasted chocolate maltiness, and soft mouthfeel. Sounds good to me! Next month I’ll know if it turns out as advertised.

And of course, that blackberry mead is still going strong…