DH has been brewing beer at a friend's house for a little over a year now, but they do it outside which limits when they brew.
He found this setup online for sale in Baltimore, so he
This is the unfinished part of the basement, which DH has turned into his home brewing area.
He recently added a sofa, which makes it so much more comfortable to watch it happen!
He has made many different kinds of beers, but the only one I really liked was an Orange Wit as I prefer a lighter beer.
After me pestering asking several times, ever so sweetly, he said he would make me a cranberry beer. Yay!
So here begins the lesson...
He - Prepping the yeast starter.
Me - Looks like a science experiment.
It's cool because it has a magnet on the bottom of the glass that stirs it.
Me - Looks like a science experiment.
It's cool because it has a magnet on the bottom of the glass that stirs it.
He - Mashing the grains and the cranberries.
Me - Stirring cranberry soup!
He - Yeast starter with candied sugar to the right.
Me - Still a science experiment!
He - Recirculating the mash.
Me - Oooh, a cranberry fountain!
He - Preparing the hops.
Me - It looks like rabbit pellets.
He - Hop spider in the boil, sweet wort at the start of the boil (no hops yet).
Me - A cone cylinder thingy, looks like boiled milk to me.
He - Leftover spent grains and cranberries.
Me - Awesome, grains for bread!
He - Rolling boil.
Me - Dirty looking water.
He - Wort in the conical fermentor, ready for the yeast pitch.
Me - Great, he's using his "koozie" Christmas present!
He - Cold crashing, bringing the beer down to temperature to carbonate.
Me - Cooling it in the cooler/ac converter thingy he made.
He - The yeast drop/trub.
Me - It looks like a pudding or a shake.
He - Dropping the yeast.
Me - Looks like a chocolate shake, but NOT!
He - More dropping of the yeast.
Me - Now it looks like sludge.
He - The hydrometer tube test, uncarbonated.
Me - Tasting tube for me!
He - The first taste test.
Me - Um, that's a lot of foam!
He - Filling the kegs.
Me - So close to being done!
He - Continue to fill the kegs.
Me - Hurry!
He - Filtering the beer into the keg.
Me - Thank goodness that's not going in my beer!
He - Putting the keg in the keezer (which he made)
Me - Finally!
Me - Finally!
He - The first pour.
Me - Ah, this is the life! Thank you, honey!
It's official, the bar is open!
He - Spent grains for the deer (for our neighbour).
Me - A cranberry bread supply.
Me - A cranberry bread supply.
The end result of the cranberry bread, but unfortunately not very many cranberries, they were on the bottom of the bag. ๐
Playing with food!
He - Edible beer!
Me - It's warm and delicious!
Me - It's warm and delicious!
This vent contraption was created after making my beer, because whenever he was brewing, it made the whole house stink!
We do have a wooden frame now, no more towels.
Ming and I breaking in the brew room couch!
I'll think I'll be watching from now on, it still confuses me. I'll stick to baking the bread from the grains, yum!
10 comments:
Boy does that look like a whole lot of work. Its a good thing I don't drink beer.
Linda
Oh, this post made me laugh! Brewing beer looks long and complicated but I'm glad the result was worth the wait. and you got bread out of the process too. The amount of equipment needed makes the storing of cross stitch stash seem minute in comparison! :)
Well done hubby on his hobby, very useful you can drink the end product .. does it cost as much as your stitching hobby ???? Lol xx
What a process. My hubby would love to get into this hobby. I told him maybe later in life. Instead he just buys a lot of beer haha.
Looks like tons of work Astrid! Does he get lots of beer in each batch? Oh the flavors you can try and then make bread. Sounds like a pairing made in heaven ;)
How very interesting. I am a beer lover and would love to taste his cranberry beer. I get peach beer at our local brewery. It is not sweet but very tasty. We have lots of craft breweries out here. Several are in the county I live in. I have to keep a close eye on carbs so I don't get to drink nearly enough!
This was a very fun post to read and learning a bit about beer making. Thanks
I (and Hubby) are very jealous, great set up, shame I'm not near enough to try the beer ... or bread
That's an impressive home setup! Hubby and I used to run a music venue called The Brewery Tap but someone else did the beer brewing, we just sold it!
Oh my goodness... that is quite the setup he's got going on there! It's all far too complicated looking to me, I'm super impressed that the end result came from all of that!
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