While the kids aren't here...
Dad's make beer!!
Or at least that's the way it worked out this weekend while the boys were down in Salt Lake for a couple of days. A~ and I took the opportunity to stop off at our local thrift store the D.I. and I found this baby brand new, complete and from this year.(The malted hops in the kit were still fresh and the product catalog for ordering new supplies was for 2009.)
I'm guessing someone got it as a Christmas gift and just couldn't see making the effort to make it themselves. Their loss, my gain. These retail normally for about $35.00 so, although home brewing is something I've been wanting to try and I think this will be a easy way to test it out, I wasn't willing to shell out forty bucks to do it. But $12.00...that I can do!
Besides the ingredients that came in the kit, I had to muster up some basic tools to use in the kitchen, all of which were chemically sanitized before using. I never thought about it, but I guess beer yeast are a pretty particular bunch. The purpose of the sanitizing is to keep any "rogue" bacteria from fouling the beer.
After sanitizing and prepping everything, the next step was to mix the "wort". This basically consists of mixing the packaged ingredients which include a premixed and hopped malted-barley solution that was a lot like molasses. One of the ingredients was a package called "booster" that was basically corn syrup solids. Not my idea of top notch beer making ingredients, but I figured that it's a first batch and this was what I had.
After mixing the wort all that was needed was to pour it into the keg with a few gallons of cold water and place in a 68-76 degree spot to allow fermentation to take place. That was the biggest challenge of the whole process, finding a place in the house that was that temperature. During the winter months about the highest that our thermostat ever adjusts itself to is 66 deg (F) but is usually set to 62. I did manage to find that the top of our refrigerator was about 68 deg this afternoon, so there it sits. I'm guessing that the fermenting in beer is a lot like that of lacto-fermentation. It will still work, but may take a little longer in the cooler temps.
So, in about two-three weeks, I should be bottling this up and in another couple of weeks should be enjoying some fine home-brew. Well, that's the plan anyway. Wish me luck!
P~
Or at least that's the way it worked out this weekend while the boys were down in Salt Lake for a couple of days. A~ and I took the opportunity to stop off at our local thrift store the D.I. and I found this baby brand new, complete and from this year.(The malted hops in the kit were still fresh and the product catalog for ordering new supplies was for 2009.)
I'm guessing someone got it as a Christmas gift and just couldn't see making the effort to make it themselves. Their loss, my gain. These retail normally for about $35.00 so, although home brewing is something I've been wanting to try and I think this will be a easy way to test it out, I wasn't willing to shell out forty bucks to do it. But $12.00...that I can do!Besides the ingredients that came in the kit, I had to muster up some basic tools to use in the kitchen, all of which were chemically sanitized before using. I never thought about it, but I guess beer yeast are a pretty particular bunch. The purpose of the sanitizing is to keep any "rogue" bacteria from fouling the beer.
After sanitizing and prepping everything, the next step was to mix the "wort". This basically consists of mixing the packaged ingredients which include a premixed and hopped malted-barley solution that was a lot like molasses. One of the ingredients was a package called "booster" that was basically corn syrup solids. Not my idea of top notch beer making ingredients, but I figured that it's a first batch and this was what I had.
After mixing the wort all that was needed was to pour it into the keg with a few gallons of cold water and place in a 68-76 degree spot to allow fermentation to take place. That was the biggest challenge of the whole process, finding a place in the house that was that temperature. During the winter months about the highest that our thermostat ever adjusts itself to is 66 deg (F) but is usually set to 62. I did manage to find that the top of our refrigerator was about 68 deg this afternoon, so there it sits. I'm guessing that the fermenting in beer is a lot like that of lacto-fermentation. It will still work, but may take a little longer in the cooler temps.So, in about two-three weeks, I should be bottling this up and in another couple of weeks should be enjoying some fine home-brew. Well, that's the plan anyway. Wish me luck!
P~
Labels:
DIY,
home brewing beer
11 comments:
What an awesome find! We've never tried brewing beer, but we do make a pretty tasty hard cider ;).
Good find! And good luck!
Sounds like fun. Let us know how it turns out. We made hard cider for the first time this year, and are going to continue to experiment with it.
Wow, I better get to our local Good Will and see if anyone donated any good Christmas gifts!
My FIL is hugely into home-brewing. He's in clubs up in Ind. and subscribes to all these magazines. He keeps refining a few different types. I don't drink beer (no moral issues, I just think it tastes icky), but DH says it's really good!
Good luck with your new venture!
Nice pick up, Mr Beer! Hanno used to brew his own beer years ago. I'd love to do it again now but we never seem to get around to it. I look forward to your first tasting.
What a great find, hubby used to make beer, and homemade beer is the best. But look out, you will feel like a lightweight. It always turned out stronger than any purchased beer.
The homemade was so good, it was hard to wait for the aging...
WOW!! I am so jealous! I have always wanted to try brewing beer. I received a wine making kit several years ago, and the wine turned out OK. I can't wait to hear how your beer tastes!
Hooray for fermentation!
Dude, beer make-i-fication is the coolest rocking-est thing you could ever do.
Maybe i'm over the top but I got into brewing 3 years ago and can't stop.
If you dig the Mr. beer, then you should try to find Charlie Papazian's guide to home-brewing. Best find ever. Wait till you get into all-grains and no can openers!!
What a wonderful score in the thrift shop! We're not big beer drinkers, so we make wine instead. But we go to one of those U-Brew places so it's a bit wimpy compared to your home brewing plans!
Very cool! What a great find!
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