Summery Bullcrap

A coworker ask me to brew him and his girlfriend, "something summery, not too hoppy." My buddy Scott and I have talked about opening a brewpub but this is one of my hold ups. Scott thinks we'd need some lighter beer because when he and his wife go out, she likes having a beer, but she doesn't like hoppy/hardcore beers. This happens with Emilie and I too. So they end up only being able to go to pubs that can satisfy both their tastes. Now, I'm not sure if anyone who reads this blog (pffff, like anyone reads this) has ever seen the Seinfeld episode where George (Larry David) and Jerry are meeting with the NBC executives to pitch the pilot they're writing, but George flips out because they're messing with his "artistic integrity?" Thats sort of the same thing I feel about brewing some light bullcrap. I refuse to brew anything don't like. Most people will argue, that's how you make money....ARTISTIC INTEGRITY JERRY!
Anyways, when my coworker asked me to brew this, I told him I would, but I was going to make something that I liked. I hope he does too.

Ingredients:
Grain:
8.5 lbs GW 2row
1.5 lbs GW Vienna
.75 lbs GW Crystal 70
.50 lbs Briess Carapils
.15 lbs Maltextro Chocolate

Hops:
.8 oz Melinium @60
1 oz Cascade @ 25
1 oz Hallertau @0

Yeast:
Wyeast American II 1332

Water:
4.8 gallons strike @ 170
Collected 3 gallons
3.4 gallons sparge @190
Collected 3.2 gallons

Notes:
6-4-2011--I use a rain barel to store water so I can pump that through my counterflow chiller. It cools the wort and saves water (go me). Well, I brewed earlier in the day so the water was sort of warm. Sooo...when I "chilled" it this time, it didn't chill it down that low. This is a fact I learned about after I pitched the yeast and cleaned up. Oh well, I've always wondered if yeast can survive in temps higher than 80*. Hit my target gravity of 1.057
6-29-2011--Had two bottles today...well, I opened two bottles. The first bottle I opened was the last to be bottled and ERUPTED upon opening. The second foamed up, but I was able to get all the beer into the cup. I think I'll not use regular sugar without liquefying it first. The beer itself was good. Sort of like a mildly hoppy red, minus the big malt backbone.