What I'd like to do this weekend.
9/08/2006 08:21:00 AM
So, D and I have picked out a nice long hike for Saturday morning (it may rain, so we might cut it short, we'll see) from the book my parents got us as a housewarming gift when they were here (which has turned out to be an awesome reference, so thanks again). After that, I'm sure we'll chillax at home.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Tonight should be bottling night, the critical juncture at which I remove the beer from the fermenter, spike it with some sugar and put it in some bottles (as Hutch can attest, we have many, many beer bottles which have been saved from the recycling bin due to my new hobby). After the bottles are closed up, the sugar I put in the beer will be another source of food for the yeast in the beer, which causes the carbonation. Apparently the beer will taste pretty much like it will when it's done, but will be flat (and warm). After it's conditioned in the bottle for a period of time, it's drinking time!
So since I aim to do that tonight, we might have another brew day tomorrow after the hike (since the fermenter will be open again). And maybe at some point I'll take the time to document that brewing process for you all as well.
Sunday I hope to go on a ride in the morning. I think my left hand is healed up enough to take the pressure, and my arm shouldn't bother me at all (knock on wood). It's getting cooler here now as well, so it might provide me a good opportunity to bust out some of my colder-weather cycling gear too.
And one more thing: I've got that great new workbench, time to put it to use (for something other than bike maintenance, though it has been handy in that arena). I want to build a small little shelf for our recycling bins so I can stack one on top of the other but still have them be accessible, but they take up have the space.
Crap. I just realized I have to figure out where I'm going to keep all the conditioning beer. Hmmm. We don't have any guests planned anytime soon. Maybe the guest room..
(Also, I'm totally swamped at work which is a huge bummer lately, but I have time to write this as I'm chaning permissions on a huge folder and it takes a long time for Windoze to do that).
But, there's plenty else I could be doing, so sayonara for now. Have a great weekend, everyone.
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3 Comments:
yummmm... BEER
Just be sure to stay off the bike after you try the brew! ;)
posted at 11:17 AM
Sunday AM update:
The bottling has waited until today. I read on Friday that I should wait a day after moving the fermenter for things to settle down again (there's about 3/4" of sediment at the bottom), and yesterday, well, I didn't get to it. So today, definitely.
Also, didn't hike yesterday as it was pouring. So I made some (freaking awesome) chili and my onion & cheese beer bread (oh, such a great combo), and later in the day after it cleared up D went for a run and I went on a ride.
I also spent a good amount of time cleaning up the garage (not quite done yet), and crossed two things off my "home improvement to-do" list.
Oh, and I did find a place for the beer - at least some of it. I'll be doing about 12 22oz bottles, so those can go back in the box they were shipped in. The rest of the bottles will be a jumble - I've got two champagne bottles (they are re-cappable, believe it or not) and a ton of 12oz bottles that we've been saving to re-use, so I'll just fill up as many of those as there is beer left - probably about 18 or so (in addition to the other bottles).
And don't worry, I'll take pictures.
Today, I've been up about an hour and fifteen minutes and had breakfast (and 2 cups of coffee), but D is still in bed, so it looks like we'll be taking a "mid-afternoon" hike.
posted at 8:41 AM
How about a recipe for the onion and cheese bread? Sounds yummy.
posted at 6:56 AM
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