Hoppy Labor Day

I hope you enjoyed your day off. I know I did, but I somehow managed to injure myself. Not sure how it happened, but it's making tonights project a little difficult.

And what is that project? Brewing beer. Yes, M and I are at it again... and hopefully we don't screw it up. M's trip out to Michigan for the annual Homebrew Festival and hanging out with Brian Wiggs from Dark Horse brewery may have been the catalyst for his wanting to break out the kettle, but I know the hop picking for Saranac is what did it for me. That was last week and I still need to write about it.

And I am pretty sure I will at some point. I don't have to point out the obvious, but I haven't been writing much. Oh sure, I posted some crossfit workouts (which I stopped doing but may start up again)... but I just wasn't motivated. No spark... nada. But this month let's see. Maybe I can get things started again. I would think so, since I have some interesting food related things about to start. On Wednesday. 

So you'll have to wait until then. 

Back to the beer. My sister purchased some hops and yeast for M earlier in the year and we are finally breaking into the stash. We acquired some fresh hops recently and M is just about ready to "wet hop" them. Which is what you call the addition of fresh hops. Why they don't just call it "fresh hopping," I don't know. It would be understood. But I am new to the brewing thing. Maybe I'll buy a book. Or if SCCC was cool, they would offer a beer making class... or classes. There is that one school in the area that will, and the CIA is opening a brewery. Gotta jump on while it's still hot... right?

DIY Kombucha

I mentioned the other day on Twitter that I would post the directions on how to make kombucha. And I'm at the 50% mark on people receiving their scobies, so here goes.

This is my third go round on making kombucha, so now I'm at the point where I've got the recipe memorized. But I need to give credit where it is due, so just know that this recipe comes from Emma Christensen's book, True Brews. If you are considering making your own bubbly concotions, pick this book up! I admit, I am slowing reading through this book but so far so good. I jumped straight to the kombucha section only because I got a scoby when I was at the DIY Kefir class at Honest Weight (which I still need to cover... oh, so behind!)

Here is the master recipe:

14 cups water
8 black tea bags (you can do a combination of teas), or 2 tablespoons loose tea
1 cup sugar
2 cups starter tea from last batch (or plain kombucha if you're just starting)
1 scoby

1. Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Mix in the sugar and stir to dissolve. Take off heat and add tea. Cool to room temperature.
2. Once cooled, add the starter tea. Pour into a gallon glass jar.
3. With clean hands, gently place scoby in jar. It may sink, it may float. It's all good.
4. Cover the jar with cheesecloth or a paper towel and store in a dark room for a week.
5. After a week, sample! If it's tart enough, bottle it up and store in the fridge. Or you could do a second fermentation (I haven't done that yet). If you're bottling at this point, remember to reserve two cups of your 'booch and get the next batch of tea ready. If it still needs more time, throw it back in that dark room and check back in a day or two. Then proceed as above.

The scobies I gave away are a bit brownish-pink. Not to worry! My last two batches have been a black tea/passionfruit mix... which of course imparted the reddish hue. They still should be okay to make your own kombucha.

And if you would like a scoby, I should have one ready in a week or so. I think. Let me read up on that to make sure.

We Got a Grain Mill!

One of the benefits I get from my health insurance plan is a gift card at the end of the year. As long as I do things, such as exercise and go to some of their sponsored events, I get monetary amount toward a long list of retailers. I decided to Amazon.com gift card and left it up to M to decide how to spend the money. Anything he wanted, all I asked in return was a taller cake turner (which I did get – not the pricey Tilt-N-Turn I really wanted, but the Ultra will do). His choices were beer minded – two small kegs; a connector so we can make seltzer; and a grain mill. From what I remember, this model had decent reviews and was priced to M’s liking.

Oooh…marvel in its prettiness!

Our lack of counter space makes using this mill difficult. M needs to make some sort of set up we can put over a bucket. After our last homebrew batch (which he made), I am hesitant to use extract again. It was probably bad yeast that messed up our brew, but I want to try my hand at all-grain.

New Brew: Brown Ale

American style brown ale with chocolate, caramel, and black malts -- dry hopped with goldings, liberty, and williamette. Free samples available by request (must be 21 or older. And awesome.)

It's not the best brown I've had, or even the best brown I've made, but considering the lack of a dedicated homebrewing setup, it's alright. Definite caramel and chocolate flavors -- earthy, with a bit of citrus. Decent head when poured. Waaaay more potent than I intended however, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.