A Beer Vacation

I am starting a 2 week booze fast today, well strictly speaking I am doing a complete cessation  of carbohydrate intake, most of which in my case is beer anyway.

Although I won't be drinking for a fortnight, I still need to keep up with brewing for the inevitable house warming party in August, which means brewing more lime witbier and hopefully a batch of Dark Island Blonde Ale, from a recipe based on Williams Brothers magnificent Scottish Session Ale.

One beer that will definitely be brewed is whatever it is I decide to do for the next installment of the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale Iron Brewer competition. The three ingredients that must be used for this round are:

• honey malt
• Hersbrucker hops
• ginger

My first instinct is to make a ginger saison, using Kazbek hops for bittering, Styrian Goldings for flavour and the Hersbrucker for both aroma and dry hopping. I am planning to use the French Saison yeast from Wyeast rather than their Belgian mainly because my cellar is nicely in the temperature range for the French whereas the Belgian likes life a little hotter.