After typing my notes into RateBeer.com for Terrapin’s and Left Hand’s latest collaboration (Midnight Project Batch #2 – Depth Charge), I was treated to a musical jig: a MIDI rendering of an Irish folk song named Seven Drunken Nights.

This musical treat was offered up to exalt my latest achievement: 700 ratings.

Somehow, these milestones never feel like a chore, no matter how long they take me (so unlike my day job…).

The brew was marvelously – perhaps even ridiculously – thick with the taste of espresso beans. It is a strong (8% abv) sweet stout loaded up with Jittery Joe’s espresso. A very nice way to close out a rough week at the office and usher in not only the weekend but also what will hopefully be a wonderful Autumn. The weather sure has been nice here lately, anyway.

For those of you that read these posts via Google Reader or other RSS reader/aggregator, you’ll find I post much more frequently in the form of status updates for Hump’s Brewing’s Facebook page. For those that read these posts from Facebook, you’ve already noticed this recent phenomenon.

For the benefit of those not yet on Facebook (likely few), I’ll recap the past couple of months…

Devilish Nectar

I cooked up Hump’s Devilish Nectar nearly 4 weeks ago. It will be a Belgian Strong Golden Ale – like Duvel, Delirium Tremens, or Piraat. Unfortunately, this batch appears to have gotten “stuck”. After nearly 3 weeks of fermentation, it was still up at around 1.030. It is still fermenting, albeit very slowly. At this rate, it may be quite some time before it finishes attenuating – at will hopefully be a nice and dry 1.010 or so.

I’ve already tried lugging the fermentor up from the basement (since it is usually about 3-4 degrees warmer upstairs), but that didn’t appear to jump-start it in any significant way… And now that beautiful fall weather is here, it’s cooling off upstairs and down.

Estate-Hopped Rye

I already harvested my hop plants this year. After drying, the yield was quite small – about 2 ounces total. I have 1.5 ounces of Chinook, 0.1 ounces of Horizon, and about 3/8 ounces of Willamette.

My plan is to cook up a Rye Pale Ale pretty soon using all of them – hopefully next weekend (10/10).

Old Humperdink

I bought a bunch of half-priced whole-leaf Zeus hops a few months ago with the intent of using them in a big, bad American Barley Wine. I still haven’t brewed that batch because it has been too warm in the basement for a clean fermentation of such a big beer.

Now that the weather is cooling off, I should be able to get to it soon – perhaps I’ll cook it up on Halloween day!