Here in just a few minutes I am going to swing by school to grab some books and gear up for the second semester of law school that starts next week. Blah. BUT after that I am meeting up with Buddy (beer maker who has contributed to Proctor's Type in the past) to collaborate on ArsenAle, a beer named after my adopted English Premier League soccer club of which Buddy is also a fan. We decided to make it an ESB, a very British style I thoroughly enjoy.
Of course we had to know what we were getting into so we tried four different ESBs on New Year's Eve: Fuller's (the best), Red Hook, Schlafly's, and Anderson Valley. From this we decided we needed to really hop it up to get the ESB bitterness but that the majority of the hops need to be added in early to keep the ESB profile. This is about the ending of my understanding of the process. Luckily, Buddy has been making beer for years, including the famed Proctorberfest from out wedding (read more here, here, here, and here). I plan to piggy back his expertise, use his equipment, and hopefully learn a thing or two. Imagine the guy who grabs paint brushes and shit for Picasso. I am excited about chronicling the process and eventually drinking a lot of beer. We purchase today and brew tomorrow. I will keep you posted and in the mean time if anyone is feeling super creative please modify this image to say ArsenAle to where it would look cool on a bottle. If you come up with something good please send the JPG to eric.t.proctor@gmail.com. I will certainly give you a shout out in Proctor's Type, thus launching your graphic design career.