Before y'all get all excited, no we didn't get a new dog(Bite. Your. Tongue.)nor did we go adopt a child.
But there IS a new boy in the house.........
A Carboy to be exact!
This glass container, known as a carboy and used to brew spirits, has been sitting in my powder room under the sink for about 5 weeks now.
It is filled with fermenting Scottish Ale.
This means that my powder room smells like a brewery.
Hubs got an itch around Christmas time to try brewing his own hooch. He asked for books on the subject and then, when he got an unexpected bonus at work, he decided to splurge a little and go out and buy a complete brewing set-up and a kit for making a batch of ale. $300 and many hours in the kitchen turning it into a dirty dishes disaster zone, the picture above is what resulted.
Last weekend, the carboy got emptied, as the beer was ready for bottling.....
Just emptying the beer from the carboy into the pale with the spigot took quite awhile.....
The bottles were sterilized and awaited filling......
The bucket is all filled and just waiting on the attachment of the hose and the filling wand.....
Hubs decided to fill on the door to the dishwasher, as this can be a messy procedure. That way, any overflows can be dumped into the dishwasher for easy clean up.......oh goody!, a dishwasher that smells like beer too!......
After the filling was done the capping process commenced. Here are the bottle caps awaiting use, soaking in vodka. And no, I didn't drink that leftover vodka after we were finished with it........vodka and I don't get along as my milkshake in Pittsburgh showed me......
Here is the beer all bottled and capped......
Hubs got 43 bottles out of that batch of ale. He made 5 gallons but you do lose some along the way, due to not wanting to suck up the dead yeast in the bottom of your fermenting container, checking the specific gravity during fermentation, sampling, etc.
Now it is sequestered back in the powder room, wrapped in black trash bags, inside boxes(to keep the light out) until the final fermenting finishes. The unveiling of Hub's first batch of home brew should be ready to imbibe in about 2 weeks.
Sluggy
But there IS a new boy in the house.........
This glass container, known as a carboy and used to brew spirits, has been sitting in my powder room under the sink for about 5 weeks now.
It is filled with fermenting Scottish Ale.
This means that my powder room smells like a brewery.
Hubs got an itch around Christmas time to try brewing his own hooch. He asked for books on the subject and then, when he got an unexpected bonus at work, he decided to splurge a little and go out and buy a complete brewing set-up and a kit for making a batch of ale. $300 and many hours in the kitchen turning it into a dirty dishes disaster zone, the picture above is what resulted.
Last weekend, the carboy got emptied, as the beer was ready for bottling.....
Just emptying the beer from the carboy into the pale with the spigot took quite awhile.....
The bottles were sterilized and awaited filling......
The bucket is all filled and just waiting on the attachment of the hose and the filling wand.....
Hubs decided to fill on the door to the dishwasher, as this can be a messy procedure. That way, any overflows can be dumped into the dishwasher for easy clean up.......oh goody!, a dishwasher that smells like beer too!......
After the filling was done the capping process commenced. Here are the bottle caps awaiting use, soaking in vodka. And no, I didn't drink that leftover vodka after we were finished with it........vodka and I don't get along as my milkshake in Pittsburgh showed me......
Here is the beer all bottled and capped......
Hubs got 43 bottles out of that batch of ale. He made 5 gallons but you do lose some along the way, due to not wanting to suck up the dead yeast in the bottom of your fermenting container, checking the specific gravity during fermentation, sampling, etc.
Now it is sequestered back in the powder room, wrapped in black trash bags, inside boxes(to keep the light out) until the final fermenting finishes. The unveiling of Hub's first batch of home brew should be ready to imbibe in about 2 weeks.
Sluggy
Hopefully it tastes good after all that. For some reason your blog is not updating on my sidebar, thought you had fallen off the radar, but I realized your feedburner may not be working. Not sure how to fix it though.
ReplyDeleteI went and found not updating in a timely manner is a known Blogger issue. I did reduce the size of my feed code and did a Ping Feedburner to try to get it to update now, but if it's an issue with Blogger and not your feeds then I am SOOL.
DeleteI tried at least.....
If Den finds out you are making beer, he will be the new boy in your house. I'm not kidding either.
ReplyDeleteI keep telling you, we need to get those two together in a business venture! If they are going to be drunks they can at least save us dough by making their own...
DeleteOh...if you don't wsnt to re-use it for cocktails, the leftover vodka can be put in a spray bottle with a drop or two of your favorite essential oil (I use a mix of lavender and citrus) and used as an air freshener/fabric refresher. It looks like you guys are enjoying thus hobby so far! I can't wait to read about the taste tests.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep that in mind for next time, thanks.....that specific bowl of vodka is long gone by now.lol
DeleteHubs is already fantasizing over what kind of beer to brew next but I told him he has to wait and drink all this first. Oh, the pain, right? lol
I hope it's a good batch! My mother used to make her own wine. Of course, we never got to test any of us (we were all younger than 12!), but I remember the bottles sitting forever in dark corners under the sink....
ReplyDelete