Home Brew Heaven - Part 1

The foam shows the beer is brewing.

As time passes I am learning to appreciate the smaller things in life. Things like good beer, quality wine, and pungent cheese... fresh veges from the garden and the earthy smell of a well maintained compost. Right along with learning to love these small things comes the desire to learn how they are created.

My husband and I have a friend who has some experience brewing beer at home, home brew if you will. Let's call him Spiky since that is what my son call him. Spiky showed up the other day with malt and hops and a bunch of other things and said, "Let's make beer!"

Spiky poured some goo, malt extract, into a large brew pot and we all waited impatiently for 50 minutes until we reached the final 10 minute stage where the hops are infused into the concoction. After the flavor of the hops had time to infuse our brown liquid we drained it into a large glass carboy and waited for the temperature to reach around 85 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point we added the yeast and sealed the carboy to keep germs out.

We sat the 5 gallon carboy in our den to ferment. Our den stays between 55 and 65 degrees since we keep it closed off to save money in the winter. I wrapped an old towel around the base to catch any splooge that came out of the bubble airlock. It seems so simple I don't know why I've never done this before!

Supposedly in 3-4 weeks we will have some Pale Ale Homebrew to bottle and keg. Spiky is fairly confident it will taste good since he has experience with this. I'm just excited to know how beer is made. I'll let you know how it turns out when I finally get to taste it.  ;)











Last night I had some lovely "me time" while the boys had a night out so I took the ultra rare opportunity to enjoy some wine, cheese, and blueberries. Cabot from Vermont makes an amazing white cheddar that pairs well with almost any red wine. Bicicleta by Cono Sur was a good wine for under $10 and fits well with my recent Chilean Wine kick. Mmmmmm... was a good night indeed!

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