KEG SYSTEM!!!!

As you can so obviously see from these pictures

#1 I finally have a keg system!  No racking into a bottling bucket, spilling beer everywhere, filling 50 bottles, and then waiting 2 weeks to enjoy my beer.

#2 I am not an organized brewer!  I have a lot of things going on and I have to be pretty intentional to work brewing into my schedule, but it is always extremely rewarding!

Something you can't tell from the picture is that this particular keg is full of delicious pumpkin ale!  I bought the keg system and the pumpkin ale kit from Northern Brewer and my brewing life is forever changed!

I think the next step is a kegerator and a counter-pressure filler.  Right now I can get away without having a kegerator because we are headed into winter and it is crazy cold out in the shop.  I need the counter-pressure filler because I really like to share my beer and so bottling it out of the keg needs to be a priority.

On a side note the selection at the local meat locker keeps getting better.  It's really hard to get a decent selection of craft beer in such a small town (which is part of the reason I brew my own) but the lakeview lockers continues to take my suggestions and order in some truly great beer.  Tonight I picked up some delicious Lucky 13 a fantastic brew from Lagunitas Brewing Co., some Double Bastard from Stone Brewing Co., and some Old Foghorn from Anchor Brewing which is quickly becoming a favorite barleywine style beer for me.



  So as you can see here this is my little keg setup, full of deliciousness and just waiting to be fully carbonated.

Before I took this picture I didn't realize that it took a while for beer to carbonate in a keg so this is the picture of the first glass of flat beer ever poured from this setup.  Although it was still pretty tasty I didn't realize you could have this much head on a beer and the beer itself still be flat...... but you can.... and I did.

This is just a little picture of where I blog and taste beer with my friends and family.  Our big shop out in the back yard, no AC in the summer, no heating in the Winter.... I wouldn't have it any other way!

Deschutes Brewery

             As promised I am finally going to post some pictures of mine and kelly's VIP tour of Deschutes Brewery in Bend Oregon.  First a little bit of back story.  I know that me and my lovely wife are not the only ones to ever receive a VIP tour to the Deschutes Brewery but for us to get hooked up in this way simply because Kelly used to work for the Meat Lockers is a really cool opportunity and was a lot of fun.  Not that one needs an excuse to visit Bend, but this made our little weekend out all the more special!

As you drive in to the Deschutes Brewery you are greeted by some beautifully large grain silos housing the delicious "fruit" of the beverage that is housed within these walls.  

Between here and the next picture we walk in to the main lobby and are greeted by the friendly staff at the Deschutes Brewery and offered some tastings of their amazing brews.  We gaze around at all the swag, all the normal brewery stuff, pint glasses, t-shirts, hoodies, and await our tour.

The tour begins and the first big stop is right here where all the magic happens.  We are told the story of the company that designs the boilers and mash tuns and such for Deschutes Brewery.  It's a pretty amazing story involving millions of dollars, shutting down highways for transport, and overseas commerce.  The company that designs these tanks is one of a kind and each of these tanks is one piece of seamless stainless steel, making them simple to clean because of the lack of space for contaminants to get stuck in. 

 Heres a little peek in to one of the tanks.  To be completely honest I'm not quite sure what this one is used for and while I may grasp the general procedure for brewing beer, I can't for the life of me remember what this tank is for. (beer geeks everywhere are laughing at me).

 Hops glorious glorious hops!!! Here is a picture of Deschutes Brewery's hop storage room.   We actually got to split open and taste one of the whole flower hops, it's bitter as one would expect and it smells like delicious beer!

 This is my very favorite picture of the tour!  I'm pretty sure our tour guide told us this is a secret room just so we'd feel special but if not then I'm about to spill the beans!  When you go down stairs in the brewery the tour guide shows you the room where all the employees gets a free pint of beer after their shift is over (one of the perks of working at Deschutes Brewery).  In this room you will see a door marked "restroom".  Well as the picture tells the story it really isn't a restroom, it's a staff tasting room.  In here there are many kegs hooked up with a few beers that the general public doesn't get to taste on tap (but we did)!  On the door is a dry erase board with the names of the brews that are on tap.   Some of the names are simply employee nick names for common brews, all of them are delicious!

Finally to end this blissful journey, a picture of my handsome face holding a sampler platter from the Deschutes Brew Pub.  You can get an amazing plethora of brews for a fair price at the brew pub along with some of the best food you could ask for.  If you venture here I recommend the garlic burger... this burger is seriously so good it will hurt you! Served on their fresh focaccia bread, a perfectly juicy garlicy flavored beef burger and beautifully displayed with their scrumptious french fries (or another side if you are silly enough to not like french fries).  The final word on the matter is, if you are in bend EAT HERE!

Thank you all for reading and for your interest in my blog, until next time enjoy your fine craft brews and hope to hear from you soon!

No excuse!

So, as I sit here finally updating my blog that I appreciate so much I totally realize how much I've neglected it.  It also occurs to me how lame it is to write 2 blogs in a row about how I've neglected my blog so on that note, I really do care about blogging and keeping everyone up to date, but I refuse to make commitments on blog dates.... the end.

That being said I have been really busy on the brewing front.  We've got a trippel finished and bottled and tasting delicious (seriously this is one of my favorites that we've done so far and we have a pumpkin ale that is currently in secondary fermentation until we keg it.... yes I did say keg it!!! I finally had the funds to buy a keg system, needless to say I'm pretty stoked about trying it out.

For anyone who doesn't know being able to keg my beer is going to cut down significantly on the time it takes to go from beer brewing to beer drinking!  Rather than go through all the hassle of bottling and bottle conditioning each batch of beer, as soon as it is done I put it in a keg, force carbonate it, and a couple of hours later drink it!!! Super Cool!!!

So lets take a brief glimpse into the future of home brew bros and brew bros ministry.  The home brew bros are doing great, I've been working 2 jobs for the past few months and brewing in my spare time.  Still hoping to open my own brewery some day and enjoying the in-between time.  I've come to the conclusion that it is definitely cheaper for me to start out by brewing soft drinks (ie root beer) and move on to alcoholic beverages such as beer, so I am making preparations to start brewing and selling some home made root beer in large part to fund the beer brewery that I hope to have in the future.... anyway, that's all for now, hopefully soon there will be some pictures of tours and such. l8r!

Back Again.... Finally!

Yes, I realize I have neglected my blogging duties for far too long now, but I am back!  Obviously the last post I did was about our finished first batch.  Since that time I have lost steady access to a computer (which for very apparent reasons I need for blogging) and have recently reacquired access buy purchase of my own laptop (finally!).

Anyway enough of my excuses and back to the matter at hand, Great Beer!!  We've since brewed a few more batches of beer, a breakfast stout, a honey brown, and a vanilla porter.  All of the batches thus far have gone fantastic but the winner hands down has to be the vanilla porter which we are planning on doing again very soon.  On the brewing horizon are three kits we've recently purchased.  The first is an irish red ale, followed by a belgian tripel (which will take about 3 months), and finally an amber ale.  We now have the ability to facilitate more than one batch at a time which will really step up production and the amount of people we get to share out beer with.  Slow and steady is the name of the game for us when it comes to eventually running our own brewery/brewpub given that we have pretty limited funds at the moment and a limited crowed since we live in the middle of nowhere Oregon.

Also on the horizon are going to be some brewery/brewpub/sports stadium trips with hopefully a video blog starring yours truly and one of my very best friends Erik Larson.  I have managed to turn Erik into quite the beer geek and he has managed to turn me into a half decent sports nut.  I have some pictures to put up about mine and my wonderful wife (kelly's) trip to bend and subsequent VIP tour of the deschutes brewery.  For now, I'll do my best to keep you updated on the daily brewing activities and stay tuned for what is sure to be a fairly entertaining video blog..... hopefully.

1rst Batch Update.

Well our First batch of beer has been complete for a couple of weeks now and I have neglected to post about it, but with the first batch done and 2nd well on it's way I figured it was time.  Bottom line is that it turned out great, much better than I would have imagined for a first batch.  Very drinkable, very creamy, and very stout, just like you would imagine cream stout to be.
          That being said, i think we can do a lot better.  As I mentioned in a previous post we added about a gallon or so too much water to this batch, and you can taste it.  It was far from a ruined batch but I really want to revisit this one and see if we can do a better job.  I love sharing this batch with people and getting their points of view on it, it has been a highly rewarding endeavor.
           With Irish days coming (Irish days is Lakeview's version of St. Patrick's Day, except we find an excuse to stretch it out for multiple days) I would really love to brew this again and share it with as many people as possible that are in town for Irish Days.  We have almost exactly a month to have the brew ready, which could theoretically work so long as I get the ingredients ordered and make it as soon as they show up, we'll see what happens.

       


         Here is me and a great friend of mine, my Syrian brother Ami enjoying one of my home brews.  Not only is Ami a great friend but also a very talented drummer who as been volunteering doing worship with me my wife, and the others in our group for a couple of months now.  It has been great to sit down and get to know him a little better over a beer lately.
       

Here are a couple of shots of our first batch,  as you can see, visually is it what you would expect of a cream stout, black with a nice think foamy head.  One picture is obviously of us floating a bottle cap on the head of this beer which was pretty interesting because I've never tried it and it worked marvelously.  Anyway, things are going great, I just obtained the book How to Brew: Everything You Need To Brew Beer Right The First Time by John J. Palmer, it has been extremely informative and interesting so far, I'm looking forward to applying the knowledge and sharing with everyone.  

Home Brew Ministries is Born!

          Over the past couple of days I've felt that I have been hiding the real reason for this blog so today will be a coming out, of sorts.  There are plenty of blogs out there for every person that has read my blog to go to and find out about the brewing process so I prefer not to bore you with details you probably already know.  The real reason behind me learning to home brew goes beyond just my taste for the delicious nectar, beyond the fact that I find the science and art of brewing fascinating and straight down to my faith in Jesus. 
          My savior has set me free, because of that freedom I can enjoy adult beverage in health and in moderation.  Not only can I enjoy beer in health and in moderation but I hopefully can draw other people into relationship and friendship with me that need that health and moderation modeled for them.  Beer is a ministry tool for me.  Main stream Christianity has in large part demonized alcohol, even called it sinful.  My question to you is, can a bottle of beer sin?  I think not!  Perhaps that is a conversation for another time, right now I'll stick to the task at hand, letting you in on my deep dark secret plan to develop friendships and relationships while people sit and share a home brew with me.
         It may come as a surprise to you, but the other guy you see in the pictures of us brewing.... that's my pastor.  He has done a great job at teaching and practicing moderation and he fully supports my home brewing endeavor.  The church hasn't done a good job of loving those that enjoy adult beverages.  For some reason it has become something that is tucked away, not to be shared, hardly to be spoken of, for that I am sorry.  I aim to change that through my endeavors in the town in which I live and by building an online community of people that can support the goals and vision that I have.
        This doesn't mean that my blog is going to turn "preachy" and that I feel the need to evangelize to everyone that comes across my blog.  It does mean that I would like my blog to become a whole lot less about the brewing process and a whole lot more about the great people I get to share this with and build friendships over. 
        Can beer point someone toward Jesus?  I don't know... can great food?  can art?  can music?  I believe so, hopefully you do to! 

Bottling Day!

This is our sanitation bucket with iodophor

 Finally the Day has arrived to bottle the brew!  We sanitized all of our equipment and went to town filling our bottles with creamy stouty deliciousness.  There's not a whole lot to say about the sanitation process, we use an iodophor solution 1 cap full for every 5 gallons of water.

We added our priming sugar to the bottling bucket and began siphoning.  Originally we were going to drain the beer from the fermentation bucket to the bottling bucket using the spigot but after a little test into a measuring cup we found that far to much of the sediment was making its way out of the spigot so we decided to just siphon from the top down.



After siphoning we found that our bottling wand didn't fit directly onto the spigot but the problem was easily solved with a small piece of vinyl hose and we began the bottling process.  If you have nice new carpet it's probably a good idea to put a bucket underneath the bottles while your are filling them because there is bound to be some spillage.

Just a couple friends enjoying bottling day and looking forward to the fruits of our labor.  We did try a small taste of the young beer and it tastes a little watery which we kind of expected due to the fact that we added about a gallon or so too much water to the fermenter.  I think that much of this problem will be solved once the young beer is carbonated as I know this will add a lot to the mouth feel, I'll let ya know how it turns out.