I was shopping for costumes recently in one of those Spirit halloween stores with OnlyWife. Now I’m not one to shy away from horror flicks, or scary things, but… there definitely is a limit on what should be shown to certain people, age groups and the general public. For horror movies, they have ratings. Some are PG-13, some are R, and some are even NC-17. These rating allow you to choose which content you see, and choose which content your children see.
While in the Spirit halloween store, I saw halloween decorations that I would not want my 13, 10, or 4 year old to see. Dismembered bodies with entrails hanging out, zombie babies, etc etc. These decorations would definitely warrant an age rating in movies, but it’s OK for someone to put it out on their lawn as a halloween decoration for all to see? That takes away my choice and decision af what is appropriate for me and my family.
A very tasty brew, that’s for sure. So tasty, in fact, that I only have one left. (I’m saving that one to share with my oldest younger brother).
I’m really digging the stuff from Northern Brewer. So far, everything I’ve had from there has been great. This kit, if you’re interested, is one of their staples and is available in an extract kit, and in an all grain kit. (if you browse to the “Additional Information” tab of each of those pages, you can get the recipe and instructions as well.)
Here’s the second batch of Dry Irish Stout that I’m brewing. This batch threw me for a loop, because I ordered it myself, and to save a little money, ordered the “mini-mash” version, instead of the all extract. Now luckily, I was (semi) prepared for a mini-mash, and I think it went well. So well that I’ll be ordering kits like that again.
It was a beautiful day for brewing! I was drinking my Cream Ale while I was brewing.
It’s really very good. I’m disappointed about the clarity a little; it has what is called “chill haze”, which I’m finally (hopefully) learning how to avoid. It’s got more of a pronounced hop flavor than I thought that it would, but still super tasty!
This time, I get to use my Christmas present: an outdoor camp stove! I went and got a new separate propane bottle and got set up in the garage.
Had only a few issues;
I wasn’t familiar with the regulator, so I had the thing blasting (as Emeril says, “use your knobs!”)
The severe heat caused a boil over; sticky all over the place
I scorched the wort enough so that big sheets of black film were floating in it
I’m still SUPER happy with the new set up. I even hooked up the spare TV and was watching bowl games while I was doing it.
This one’s going to age for awhile once I get it in the bottles. I’ve got two batches of Dry Irish Stout to brew, so I intend to have 4 cases ready for St. Patrick’s Day this year!
And here it is: the result of my first real home-brewed beer. It had only been in the bottle for one week at this point, so technically it wasn’t ready, but I was extremely anxious to try it out. It is unbelievably delicious. Tastes very much like Sam Adams Christmas Ale.
I didn’t have any measuring equipment yet when I originally brewed this, so I don’t know the *exact* ABV percentage, but it has to be up there a bit (8-10%), because I got HAMMERED off of 6 of them.
Looking forward to more of them after they age a little more. This is the one I’m taking to the family holiday parties, so I’m really excited.
Northern Brewer is also really great in that they make the recipes for their kits available. Since the links above are to limited edition kits, here are the recipes and instructions for each:
So Brew #3 is a Cream Ale, similar to Genesee; my first “yellow” beer. Brewing this time, I was prepared for the stove-top debacle from last time, and fired up the bridge burner first thing. It still took way too long, but at least it was manageable.
I didn’t get any pictured this time, but I will post the results of this brew for sure!
So… I’m completely obsessed with this beer making thing. (previous post)
OnlyWife let me buy my own brew kettle, which I found SUPER cheap at one of the online stores; a 5 gallon stainless steel boil kettle for $17.99! Yeah, great price… until you get to the shipping. So of course, I had to get a few other things to make it worth it; some cleaner, another beer kit to brew, some more bottle caps.
But this kettle… big. Bigger than the one I used in the last batch. A little flimsy; definitely not the best kettle, but it will do.
So I get to brewing the next batch. Get the kettle on the stove, follow the instructions and… it doesn’t boil. I’m freaking out. If it doesn’t boil, the beer may be ruined. I’ve read alot about home brewing, and everything says not to panic; it will be alright. But I was panicing.
2 hours and no boil.
Then I leaned on the stove in frustration and almost burned my hand. Aha! The pot was too big for the burner on my glass top electric stove! The glass was actually dissipating the heat away from the pot. Damnit! Luckily, my stove has a “bridge-burner” on the other side, which basically makes the whole left side of the stove one big burner, so I cranked it up, and moved the boil kettle over.
In a short while, it finally started to boil. Whew!
Here’s the boil kettle on the bridge burner.
So I finally got moving on the brew. Everything worked out, and now I have two batches of beer fermenting and getting ready to finally drink. The waiting is the hardest part.
While I was waiting for the boil, I also made OnlyWife a small batch of “Hard Lemonade”. I’m using my old Mr. Beer kit to ferment it. I had to actually put the thing to use; couldn’t let it go to waste. 🙂
Hard Lemonade fermenting
Now I’m trying to convince “Santa” (OnlyWife) to buy me an outdoor propane burner so I don’t have problems with the stove again. And I’ve got the process pretty much down, so the next brew day should go pretty smoothly.
Can there be anything more manly than brewing your own beer? I think not.
A few christmases ago, OnlyWife bought me one of those cheap beer making kits you see at bloodbath and beyond; Mr. Beer. It sat around for awhile (a LONG while) and I finally got around to making it this past summer. It wasn’t BAD… but it wasn’t really good either. But I had the curiosity and motivation to search out better ways of making beer. There are tons of really informative sites on the inter-tubes, as well as tons of online shops.
While browsing these shops, I entered any and every kind of giveaway/contests I could find. Well… I actually won one. A whole starter home brewing kit, including a beer recipe, as well as another beer recipe of “holiday” beer. Just in time to brew it and be ready for the holidays.
The funny part is, the kit didn’t include exactly EVERYthing that you need to brew. You need a pretty large stock-pot, as each kit brews 5 gallons of beer (that’s roughly two cases), and you need the bottles to put it in. The bottles are not really a problem; I LIKE to drink beer, and collecting pry-off beer bottles from myself, friends and family members would be pretty easy. The stock-pot on the other hand… we only have a 2 gallon one, and I needed at least a 3 or better yet, a 5 gallon one to brew the beer. So I had to borrow one from the neighbors for the first batch.
Terrible picture of me enjoying a beer while brewing a beer.
Even then, it was just a little bit too small. At certain points in the brew process, you have to add more ingredients, and then watch closely for boil-overs. During one of those additions, OnlyWife was asking me questions about the whole process, and I was so excited that she was interested that I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing, and we had a boil-over. ALL over. Now beer is basically just sugar water, so the entire stovetop, counter top, stove sides, counter sides and floor were covered in sticky goo. I couldn’t stop the brew/boil so we had to let it go until it finished.
I finished the brew, got it into the fermenter and cleaned everything up.
Then I convinced OnlyWife to let me buy my own bigger brew kettle for the next batch. 🙂
