It’s been ages since I’ve done as much homebrewing as I’ve been doing lately, and I’ve been meaning to write a bit about it. Here’s what’s been brewing:

• The Two-Penny Ale made over the 4th of July holiday. I ended up with something like 30 bottles worth, just over half a regular batch. It’s pretty good, I need to write a review of it. I don’t know the alcohol content though—if I had recorded the original gravity, I’ve since lost it. It’s not very high, though.
• A Bitter. This is just a standard English-style hoppy-ish pale ale, low alcohol (3.4% by volume) to be a session beer. I bottled using Grolsch bottles, ended up with 36 total. So far, it’s pretty decent.
• My standard Pumpkin Ale. We still had frozen pumpkin left over from last season which needed using up. It’s going to be a good batch. It’s in the primary now, I need to rack it to the secondary no later than tomorrow. When I do, I’m going to add the spices at that time, rather than at the end of the boil, or at bottling time, and see how that works.

I’ve got some ideas for at least two other beers I want to brew, if I get the chance: a rhubarb wheat ale, using about eight cups of rhubarb I have in the freezer (I’m thinking a Kölsch yeast), and some sort of "fresh hop" harvest ale. I picked four ounces worth (after drying) of hops from my mom’s hop plant, and the idea of making a high gravity, fresh hop beer (which seems to be the trend this season) is enticing.