Quote of the Day

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed.  Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams.  If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered.  Then I think to myself, it is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."

Jack Handey  And me.

Bottling Day!

Almost a month ago we cooked up our first batch of beer and set it to fermenting.  Yesterday was bottling day...I'm so proud!

Step one: clean and sanitize everything (I think this is always step one).  We had kept the sanitizing solution from brewing day, so we just used it.

Bottle caps...and here are our bottles (they came with the kit, but we're going to start our own bottle collection).

I boiled up the priming sugar and added it to the bottling bucket.  The sugar causes the fermented liquid to carbonate.  We then siphoned the liquid out of the fermenting bucket and into the bottling bucket using an auto-siphon.  If you've never used one, they're very nifty, although until we figured out how it worked (we're like monkeys with tools), there was nothing "auto" about it.  But once we got it working, we were golden.  Here's what the fermenting bucket looked like after:

I know it looks pretty gross, but man, did it smell good!  I need to find out if there are any repurposing options for this stuff...bread...cookies...something?  In the end, we just tossed it.  Maybe next batch.

Once all the fermented liquid was in the bottling bucket, we let it sit for a couple of hours so any residual sediment would settle.  We went to lunch and then to the grocery store...where, in addition to our list, we bought beer...what is wrong with us.  Oh, wait.  Nothing!!

We returned and started bottling.

And voila!

Awwww.  Our first beer.  The red contraption behind it is a manual bottle capper...pretty cool.

We had enough beer in the bucket to fill all of our 2 cases of bottles, plus two additional bottles.  We could have filled a couple more but, alas...no extra bottles in the house - Joe had taken the recycling out a couple of days before.

In about two weeks, we'll have our first tasting.  Our next batch depends on the success of this one.  If this Amber is good, we'll try something else.  If not, we'll go back to the drawing board and try another Amber.  Stay tuned!!

How Many Have You Had?

Tracy sent me an article from rate beer of the Top 50 Beers In The World.  I read down the list and counted 20 that I know I have had.  Of course, these lists are always subjective, but there are some mighty fine beers in the list.

Take a look and see how many you have had!