Still Brewin'!

Just because I haven't posted in a while, it does not mean I've been slacking on brewing as well. On the contrary, I have quite the variety going right now. Here's the breakdown of what I have at home:
In the bottle:
Orange Blossom Mead--I bottled this during the summer, so clearly it's ready...and we've been enjoying it for several months now. However, from my research, mead can be aged for several years. And, if you age it correctly (cellar temps, good seal on the cap), it can be aged for decades. One guy reports that many people brew a batch for their child's birth and then share it with him/her on the 21st birthday. How cool would that be?! So, I'm attempted to at least save a few bottles as long as I can.

Banana Nut Brown--This is the beer that Colleen and I made, hoping that it would basically taste like banana bread. Well, it doesn't quite hit the mark on that, but it's a good brown ale. We probably have just a few bottles of that left unfortunately.

Barleywine--You've read about my efforts to brew this one up. And now that it's bottled and ready, I must say that it's not bad! At first I worried that it wasn't carbonated enough. But, silly me, I forgot the motto of "don't worry..." This beer came out well--good bitterness to match the very malty sweetness. Some caramel, dark fruit, brown sugar. And the 7-8% abv is well-hidden, but hits hard after a few drinks.

In the Fermenter:
Roggenbier: This was an all-grain batch given to me for Christmas. It's a kit from Northern Brewer. Here's the profile of the beer--
"A version of dunkelweizen (German dark wheat beer) that's brewed with a large percentage of rye instead of wheat, Roggenbier is an old Bavarian specialty. Our kit exhibits a rich reddish-brown color and the pungent spiciness of rye malt with bready, malty overtones. Excellent with cold cuts and rye bread or crackers (of course!)."
This is a fun one to brew, because you can't find nearly any versions of it on the shelves at liquor/beer stores. So, ya gotta brew it to drink it! I think this one will come out well, too. It's not nearly as strong in alcohol as others, so it'll be easier to drink (several).

On Deck:
American Porter--This is a simple porter recipe I made up with the guidance of a few other recipes I read. I plan to brew my porter this weekend. The fun thing about this beer is that I plan to break it into five one-gallon portions once it has been fermented and add a different ingredient to each portion. Once they are ready and bottled, I will invite a few friends over to test their palates to see if they can detect the ingredients and determine which is best. I wonder what ingredients might be added.........