It has been a fairly good month, my brother came down from New York and we were able to hang out for a couple of days. We had a few beers, built a fire, and talked about the past. It doesn't get much better than having family, a camp fire, and beer to lift your spirits.
I had tons of wood piled up, from trimming the trees in my yard, from pile of fence pickets, and also a couple of logs from a tree that fell in my yard. The fire burned from 9pm to about 4:30am, and even then we had to hose it down for about fifteen minutes before it completely went out. Wish I had taken a few more pictures, the steam from putting it out almost covered my entire yard.. it is a good thing that it was foggy that day.
I also have started to brew my own beer, as a way to save money and also keep me busy. Mind you, I don't drink every day - mostly once every other week, but the costs add up. I've been drinking the cheap stuff, such as Busch Lite, which isn't all that bad of a beer, but I would rather try to cut my expenses down in half while at the same time producing a better tasting beer.
So, a few weeks ago I thought I would have my hand at producing a cheap wine, using some Welch's grape juice, two cups of sugar and a bunch of baker's yeast. Mind you, I was not looking to create a fantastic wine, I just wanted to see how it worked out. Here is a picture of what happened after the first day, it foamed up quite a bit, and for the next several days it was bubbling like crazy as it fermented. In order to ensure it wouldn't explode, while at the same time not be contaminated I simply left the cap on top, slightly loose to ensure air could escape.
This is what it looked like after about a week, the color changed from purple to a rusty looking color. You can't really see the bubbles rising, but there were a ton of them. There was no smell though, which was interesting. I thought there would be a massive stench associated with brewing.
Here it is now, I moved it to another bottle as a bunch of yeast and other gunk form at the bottom while fermenting. The total fermentation time was about two and a half weeks, in temperatures that averaged in the mid 80s. It looks like wine, smells like wine, and tastes like wine... I don't really like wine to begin with, but my wife, mother, and brother enjoyed it. No one noticed any off flavors from using baker's yeast, so all in all it isn't so bad.
So, after that experiment, we bought a Mr Beer for less than $30, and I brewed my first beer. I didn't take any pictures of the brewing part, but it was pretty straight forward. Toss a can of liquid malt extract in boiling water, and add it to the fermenter along with colder water. It has been sitting in the jug, under the cabinet for the past ten days doing it's thing. Again, no nasty smells at all.
Today, I gave it a sample to see how far along my brew has come. It has a bit of a cider taste to it, and still a bit sweet, probably because I added two cups of cane sugar to it, and also because it was fermenting in 80 degree weather. It is not too bad though, I think I will bottle it up by the end of the week, give it to new years to carbonate and give it another try. Hopefully, it has a bit more to ferment out and the flavor will become a bit better. As you can see it is still cloudy, and I can see bits of yeast suspended in the liquid.
And that is all there really is to it, another month passed. A hobby picked up, which should be inexpensive. The way I look at it, is that I can brew up to 21 beers in the fermenter at a cost of about $16.00 if I purchase the liquid malt extract from Mr Beer. What I am going to do instead, is purchase a few hops, some malt extract, and yeast for much less than that. From what I have read, I can make almost five gallons of beer, that is fairly good quality, for less than $30. That is about 53 12 ounce beers, so it works out a lot cheaper than the inexpensive beer, and should taste better. It should also last me about two months, which is good.
Now, I don't want people thinking I am an alcoholic, nor that I waste money partying every night. I drink once every other week, at most eight beers, usually less, after my children are in bed, and while my sober wife is home in the event of an emergency. I enjoy the peace of mind it gives me, and quite frankly the break from reality :) I think this hobby serves two purposes, first, it gives me an interesting hobby to pass the time and keep me entertained, and the second would be a savings on my bi monthly escape.
In other aspects of a great month, I just completed my first semester and earned an A in both of my classes, I'm looking forward to doing 9 credit hours next semester and hopefully keeping up the GPA. I've also been day dreaming about my sailboat, I can't wait until I finally land a real job instead of doing these surveys, so that I can take her out.
