Alliteration Porter.

Power Pack Porter

Started Brewing on 01/06/10 - OG 1.063- FG 1.004-1.011

(the hydrometer was taking on water) - The alcohol content is around 6.8%.

We bought this kit from Midwest Supplies. The process went much smoother with this batch of beer. We were much better organized and ready for all the steps. Ahh Experience. We raised the amount of water in the wort which a few books have said leads to a better tasting beer. This also leads to a higher chance of the stock pot bubbling over. It would be terrible to have gallons of water that have been infused with 10 or so pounds of sugar to be all over the stove /counter. You have to be vigilant while everything is boiling on the stove.

We bottled the beer on 1/19/10 and had our first taste on 01/29/10.

It was very yummy!. It had a smooth flavor, with hints of chocolate. I think the aftertaste hit too fast but will settle as the bottles age more. We are expecting this batch to be good for the Super Bowl.

The kit for this beer cost 33.5 at the grocery store it would have cost 55.92 for an equal number of beers. Leaving us 126.78 in the hole.

Batch 1- Sierra Nevada.

We just started enjoying our first batch of beer. When we bought our brewing kit we choose from a list of clones (home brews based on mass brewed beer.) We thought Sierra Nevada would fit both our tastes and since the saleswoman knew we were beginners... easy. Well it was a bit more complicated than we should have started out with. The batch it self hit some snags and we learned lots of lessons.

Here is my brief synopsis of beer making.

Steep grains for about 20-30 mins at water about 155 degrees. Remove the grains and add malts and fermentables. While those boil for a while you add hops at different intervals (60 mins- bitterness / flavor / aromatics.) After an hour you immediately cool the beer and throw in some yeast. Let it do it's thing for 7 days. Then you transfer to a bucket with a spigot at the bottom and add some sugar (which carbonates the beer). Bottle, cap, wait.. enjoy!

We were supposed to add another step to the Sierra Nevada which is to move the beer to a secondary fermenter (a glass carboy or 6 gallon bucket) and add some more hops and let it ferment again for another 7-10 days. We didn't do this because we didn't own a second fermenter at the time... something one would think the sales lady would have mentioned. Regardless.. we just skipped that step and bottled as instructed.

Reactions- It tasted pretty good! Nothing like a Sierra Nevada though. It started as overly carbonated which means we should fill the bottles up more. The more air left in bottles the more carbonated it will be. As it ages this problem seems to be going away. I enjoy this batch with a lemon.

Besides our fascination with making things ourselves instead of buying them prepacked we are also brewing beer to save money. In the end our six packs should cost us under 4 dollars. Currently we pay anywhere from 6.99-7.99 p/6pack and around 4.19 for our favorite beers that only come in 22oz bottles. So far we spent 176.62 on equipment. The cost of the ingredients for our first batch was 40.49. If we had bought that batch in 6 packs at the grocery store we would have spent- 67.91 leaving us 149.20 in the hole.

Coming up- Power Pack Porter and I dream of Harvest Mondays.

The Beginning

This will mark the first summer that my husband Joe and I will spend in our new home on Briggs St. We saved for a couple years to afford this house and are excited to realize our dreams of spending summers sweating in the garden and lounging enjoying the fruits of our labor. Our previous apartments lacked the outdoor experience we had been craving. I want this blog to track progress in our garden, showcase our chickens and talk about each new batch of beer we brew.

I have been looking forward to having a garden for years. We dug a 14 x 18' foot plot for our first year to keep things simple and manageable. We also have a 10 x 3 plot where I plan to start an herb garden and an 22 x 10' ornamental plot that we planted this past fall. There are some berries and herbs in that plot which I hope will add to my garden harvest totals. Besides this we have three huge containers, two big containers and a handful of smaller pots. I am currently awaiting the arrival of this years seed catalog and hope to have everything plotted out within the next couple of weeks.

We plan on getting three chicks this spring. First we have to build a coop and a run and then hopefully take a class of raising chickens. I think they are going to be so much fun to own. We love eggs from the farmers market but have a hard time justifying the 6-7 dollar dozens.. I am hoping that the birds will cut down that cost. They will also be eating our garden scraps and contributing to our compost pile.

Brewing beer is our new hobby. I am hoping the garden can contribute some hops. And if nothing else the grains and hops are already in our compost pile, already contributing to our non existent garden.

I hope to join in a blog community. I have been voyeuristicly reading some garden/ canning blogs and hope to start conversations with these people to A. have friends who won't mind me being excited about harvesting spinach and B) to have have friends with experience whom I can ask questions.

Looking ahead - The first batch of beer and I dream of harvest Monday's.