AlphabetSoup

I downloaded a WordPress Plug-in called WPhone which slows you to Administer your WordPress blog via your iPhone.

You can write posts and pages. You can mange posts, pages, comments, categories and plug-ins.

Welcome to my new corner of the internet. I have moved off the wordpress servers, and I am not hosting my own blog.

If you want to review some of my old posts (you know you want to see the early photos of the bathroom renovation, who doesn’t), you can find them at alphabet.wordpress.com.

So I finally worked up the courage to brew my first batch of beer.

The whole idea of sterilization made me nervous. Screw up that step, and you screw up the beer. It is the first step, and you only learn if you made a mistake 3-6 weeks later.

But it is done. The 5-gallon bucket is in my basement, and the yeast is working away.

Here are some photos from my journey…

Start with 2 5-gallon buckets. Sterilize them.Then in a 4-gallon brew pot (that’s what I had), bring the water to 170 degrees and steep the crushed grains, seen here in mesh bags, for 20 minutes.Then add malt and hops and boil for 55 minutes. Remember to stir occasionally. Then add the finishing hops and boil for another 5 minutes.

Then cool the wort to 70 degrees, and transfer to the fermentor bucket. Then add the yeast. I was given the suggestion to add a bag of hops here to give it a little more flavor. So I tossed a mesh bag of cascading hops into the bucket. Sealed the lid. Labeled it. And put it in the basement.

Meghan and I are heading to Europe in May. A couple of days in Paris, and a couple of days in Brussels.

Why Brussels, you ask?

Zane Lamprey and his show Three Sheets (now available on Hulu.com) on the Mojo Network.

Long and short of, there is a scene in the Brussels episode (watch here) where he visits the Delirium Cafe and is treated to many of the 2000+ beers on the menu. At one point, he is shown, not allowed to drink, share the name, or show the label of one local Abbey’s beer.

Our goal was to find that beer (And, who wouldn’t want to visit a place where the local hang-over cure is Belgium chocolate?).
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Who likes beer? Better question, who doesn’t?

I got a home brew kit for Christmas from my lovely wife. And finally, last week, I got around to buying the ingredients for my first attempt at brewing my own beer.

I have decided to go with an India Pale Ale, along the likes of Sierra Nevada.

Wish me luck.

Updates and photos to come.