Happy Father's Day- A Late, Late Update

I never got around to my post on Nick's Father's Day gift, so here it is!

Ellie and I decided Daddy needed his very own kegerator as a Father's Day gift! This is something we were going to get once we moved into a new house, but with a little extra space in the basement we decided why wait! The kegging start-up kit was on back order for about a month, so the tardiness in this post is not entirely my fault. (Although it really is.)

We (Nick) took a chest freezer, added a collar (which I stained and coated) and made a few other adjustments. TaDa! A kegerator!

Now instead of bottling we are kegging! Which means if you want a homebrew, you are going to have to visit us.

Here are a few pictures during the process:

Looking in before the lid is put back on.See all the extra space in the freezer?

We have two keg dispensers set-up now, with the hopes of two more in the next month

and maybe two more before the end of the year

(sounds like good items for a Christmas list).
And the view of the kegerator almost finished
(it just needs a drip tray and the labels for the beer)

Nick must like it, because he has already consumed one keg of beer. No worries, we have two more in there, another two in process and plans for brewing up two more this weekend.

Ellie The Brewmaster

She took her first brewery tour in the womb.

http://karaandnick.blogspot.com/2009/06/saint-louis-trip.html

At six months she helped brew her first batch of beer.
She will be an expert by the time she is able to drink it.

And yes, she did enjoy brewing the beer. We have a natural.

Beer, beer and wine!

Here is a picture of one of our Sunday activities from a few weeks ago:

We did a similar thing this past weekend brewing up an Oatmeal Stout beer, bottling a Cream Ale beer (the white bucket in the above picture) and transferring the Australian Chardonnay (the yellow glass carboy on the left in the above picture). I guess you could say that I am getting prepared for after the baby is born and I can participate in adult drinks once again!

We have found that doing a number of different batches on the same day makes it much easier with the sanitation process. I believe this is our 3rd batch of beer this fall, and we have one more left to go (we are hoping to get it brewed next weekend if the weather is nice and our schedule permits it). The last time we brewed we had a incident with the turkey fryer (no, not the baby), and the gas-line creating a little bit of a flame (that could be an understatement). We cannot complain, after 28 batches our cheap Walmart turkey fryer was bound to call it quits and the only thing injured during the incident was the grill cover (easy to replace). Needless to say, we purchased a new fryer this morning from our favorite local brew supply store: Beer Crazy (check it out if you are in the DM area, not only do they sell brewing supplies and wine-making supplies but they have a very nice selection of specialty beers). Here is a picture of the new addition to our brewing supplies: We love the new burner and it makes things much easier!

The next job is to figure out a "winery name" and label design for the wine- any suggestions?

Counting down and stirring up some home-brew goodness

We have officially hit the third trimester for Baby Turkey! 12 weeks left and counting down. The baby’s room is pretty much complete, and as Nick puts it: “It looks like a baby’s room now!” Not sure what it was looking like before. I also had my glucose test earlier this week, and with no call from the lab- I must have passed! Thank goodness for me, and the lab tech that said she really hoped I passed because she did not want to have to take blood out of my hand that many times in one day. Baby seems to be growing fine and we are now onto our every other week Dr. appointments- let the fun begin.

With the end in sight (sort of), and the summer turning cool it was time to get active with our brewing once again! Nick ordered up his favorite from last year, a Peat Smoked Porter. I ordered a new brew, a Cream Ale that is supposed to be a good beer after mowing the lawn (which doesn’t really make sense because I don’t mow the lawn, nor will the lawn need to be mowed by the time the beer is ready for consumption.) We brewed up Nick’s batch last weekend, and will start mine this weekend. Don’t worry, the beer will not be ready to be drank until around the time the baby is here- I may have to be tempted for a week or so, but not much longer than that. I am thinking I am going to put more of mine in growler containers (see picture) so I can open one and have small bits at a time without having to drink a whole bottle. And who knows, Nick may opt to help me drink it as well. It was very fun to get back into the brewing business again, as we have taken most of the year off with the pregnancy.

If you are in the neighborhood around the holidays, we should have a little one to hold and some homebrews to drink- until then the homebrew stash is getting a little low and the baby just kicks in my tummy.

From brewers to wine-makers!

After many, many kits of home-brews we have decided to expand our operations to wine-making. Truthfully, Nick got me the equipment to start our wine-making for my birthday back in September. We were just a little behind in using it.

First up on the wine-making list: a California Cabernet. Nick's choice if you couldn't have guessed.

Like with the beer, we are using kits at this point. We ordered our kit from Midwest Brewing (great store for those of you interested in this fun hobby) and started the actual process a month or so ago.s ago. We hope we like it, as we have 30 bottles of it either way.

Next up on the wine-making list: a California Chardonnay (can you tell we have a preference to where our wine's come from?) We have yet to order the kit, but will do it one of these days. Estimated consumption date: November/December. I cannot wait!

Here are some pictures of the process thus far.

The transfer process

Bottling the wine

All 30 bottles, and still room for more in the rack!

We have fun too!

For those who do not know, we started brewing our own beer about a year and a half ago (thanks to the encouragement from Kara's brother and expert brewer, Eric.) During the massive overhaul of the house we have continued this hobby. We figure that at some point the house will be ready for guests, and we can celebrate with some homebrews!

This weekend we brewed up a KC Wheat beer (a knock-off of Boulevard Wheat) that is now in the primary fermenter. For those who are not crazy homebrewers like us, there are various stages to brewing. The actual 'brewing' itself when you spend about 3 hours heating and cooling the water, grains and hops into what is called wort. Then it goes into the primary fermenter with the yeast for about a week. After that you transfer it to the secondary fermenter (that is the option we choose anyway) for another 2 weeks or so. Then you add the sugar (for carbonation) and bottle up the beer. Two weeks after that (at the earliest) it is ready for tasting. Each batch makes up approximately 48 bottles of beer.

It is a great hobby with amazing results. And we enjoy doing it together which is the best part.

Here is what we have on board:
Up Next for Brewing: KC Pale Ale (knock-off of Boulevard Pale Ale)
Primary Fermenter: KC Wheat
Secondary Fermenter #1: Copper Ale (aka DMB Bong Water)
Secondary Fermenter #2: Cherry Wheat (Kara's Favorite)
Just Bottled: Cream Ale
2 Weeks in the Bottle: Tongue Splitter Ale
Ready for Consumption: Hank's Hefeweizen

We are outgrowing our beer closet- and may have to find a new place to store things!