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.

 

New Equipment 2!!

Well I said I would post some pics of my new toys so here they are!

This is a nice pic of the huge pile of stuff we received. I'm so excited to put it all to use, it's nice to have some glass carboys so that I can actually witness the fermentation and all the other cool stuff that goes down inside that amazing container!

I'm sure you've all seen pictures of kegs, carboys, bottles, tubes and corks before, but hopefully you'll indulge my whims to show all of this off!
I know that this will be enough for me to brew for a while and hopefully be enough for me to get enough brews under my belt that I can start entering some competitions which is really what I want to do in the end.

New Equipment!

The other day we got a call from our friend back in Colorado who is getting out of the home brewing game. It sucks to see a fellow home brewer stop but his loss is our gain! We got a screamin' deal on a TON of new equipment. I'll post pictures of all of it later but we should now be able to have 3 brews going at once and enough bottles to last us for a long time! I am super excited!

Dog Fish Head 'nuf said!

Honestly I had never really tried or thought much about Dog Fish Head brews until I saw the show Brew Masters on Discovery. The show is actually part of what inspired me to start my own home brewing. The show is interesting it does a great job at showcasing all the quirky people in charge of the Dog Fish Head brewery, along with some of the creative process and business aspects that come into operating a micro brew. Also their beer is fantastic!

Tonight I cracked open a bottle of their Palo Santo Marron. It pours really dark for a brown ale and has a super thick creamy head. It smells sweet with a little touch of citrus hops. As good as it smells it tastes even better, sweet with vanilla, caramel, and chocolate. I'm not sure exactly what flavors are in it from the Paraguayan Palo Santo wood barrels that it is aged in but it is delicious! It leaves a taste in your mouth like you just ate some ice cream. It is creamy, finishes smooth with a little bit of alcohol flavor. Scary amount of drinkability because it is 12abv.. be careful with this one, it is incredible!

The Great Brew Pub Adventure In Klamath Falls

Today me and my wonderful wife decided to make the hour and a half drive to Klamath Falls from Lakeview. Since Lakeview isn't exactly the mecca of culture, brews, fine dining, or most any form of entertainment we indulge ourselves with these trips to Klamath about once a month in order to save our sanity and enjoy some of the things a slightly larger town has to offer. In this case the highlight of my day was our lunch date at the Klamath Basin Brewing company's brew pub, The Creamery.



If only for the brew pub then the trip was WELL worth the time. We walked in and were greeted by our extremely friendly server Lindsay. We started things off with a tastey Crater Lake Amber Ale. The amber ale had a light amber color as most of them do, very clear not hazy at all, a light refreshing taste with notes of citrus and a bit of a hoppy dry finish. It had about 1 finger of head with light lacing throughout.








After the Amber Ale it was time for the main course. My wife went with the pulled pork sandwich and after much deliberation I settled on the pub steak sandwich. They were both OUT OF THIS WORLD good! The kind of good that makes you hate all other sandwiches because they can never live up to the splendor that is this sandwich that has so gloriously found its way to your watering mouth and into your soon to be full belly! But of course, talk is cheap, so I'll show you!
















After our delicious meal I finished things off with an even more amazing brew. It was the Klamath Brewing Company's vanilla porter. I am a really big fan of dark beers and porters fit well into that category and this was probably one of my favorite all time porters. It pours black with not a little bit of head that dissipates quickly with very little lacing. It smells of sweet malts, roasted barley, and strong on the coffee. The taste is slightly hoppy with a lot of sweetness to balance it out, vanilla and coffee finish it off beautifully.

This brew pub comes highly recommend by me, so if you ever happen to find yourself swinging through Klamath Falls Oregon, stop by and enjoy a lovely brew, some delicious food, and some friendly staff. Everything was so good I couldn't pass up bringing home a few bottles of their Drop Dead Red, I'll let you know how it is when I can give it a proper tasting, until then keep enjoying those home and micro brews and I'll keep filling you in on my experience!

Lagunitas Imperial Stout

Another beer review here for ya.

Very Dark beer, with not a whole lot of head retention. Maybe a finger of head when you first poor which reduces fast and leaves lacing throughout.

Smells pretty sweet to begin with, but opens up as it warms up. As it warms up I smell more roasted malts and alcohol, the alcohol smell got strong enough that it actually made my eyes water.

Great roasted malt taste with some dark fruits and some licorice. Finishes with a slightly hoppy and alcohol taste.

Medium mouth feel, great taste but somewhat low on drinkability due to the alcohol. This newer bottle is 10.14 abv.

Serving type: bottle