I’ve got some good news about my latest batch of homebrew – it’s alive!  I posted the other day about how the boil went well, but my yeast didn’t start.  That’s what I get for using a smack pack with an expiration date from the Eisenhower administration. I got a ton of helpful responses as […]

True to my New Year resolution, I actually got off of my butt and brewed a beer this weekend.  It was the Bell’s Two Hearted clone I picked up from Northern Brewer in April of last year.  That’s right – this kit has been sitting around for almost nine months.  While that’s probably not a […]

I enjoy brewing beer, but I’ve been procrastinating lately because I DETEST bottling. After having a Northern Brewer kit on the dining room table for a few months, I realize that I’m not going to get any closer to brewing without coming up with a bottling solution. So my solution is to NOT bottle, but […]

This is how my weekend started.  With a funeral.  A Funeral for my Son.  A funeral for his Bachelorhood!  Yes, my Son got married this weekend, and the festivities were great.  This kicked it off with a lunch put on by his co-workers.  He is working a summer job in Boise in a Carpenter shop […]

Well here we go!  Our first remote broadcast, and our first one where Jim and I will actually be face to face!  As some of you know Jim and I live across the country from each other, he in Jersey, and me in Idaho.  Well Tomorrow Jim will be escorting our Mother out here to […]

Well I’m finally ready to pass judgment on my oak-aged bourbon porter, my first-ever home brew.  I had it four weeks after bottling and thought it was a mess and needed to spend more time in the bottle.  That was a few months ago, and now it’s time to crack one open and see how […]

There are lots of folks who want to brew beer for a living.  For some it’s a pipe dream, for others it’s an organized goal.  For the folks at Manor House Brewing, it’s a calling. This struck me like a ton of bricks when I sampled their Cannonball Reserve, a Belgian Strong Ale that absolutely […]

Well it’s back to reality after a long and pretty mellow weekend. I went to a couple of parties, hung out with the family and enjoyed a good number of beers. I also played waaay too much Red Dead Redemption for such a sunny weekend, but what can I say, I love playing cowboy on […]

It’s been a little while since we’ve asked about you beer, whiskey and food-inspired plans for the weekend and that’s just not right! Time to get back to form. For me, I’m looking forward to tasting the latest creation from my friends over at Manor House Brewing (hit them up on Facebook here), one of […]

Eight weeks ago I brewed my first beer from extract, an oak and bourbon aged porter.  It was an ambitious choice for a first brew, but the brewing was actually the easy part – it’s the waiting that has been difficult.  It had to ferment for six weeks, first alone and then with oak chips […]

It was a homebrew extravaganza for me this weekend, and I have to say I missed most of it.  Sure I drank the beers, but I’m coming off of a silly little cold, and it left me with a swell parting gift – a lingering sinus infection.  It’s hard to taste anything, I feel like […]

If you guessed bathing with beer, you’d be wrong.  If you guessed taking my first shot at bottling my own beer, then *ding*ding*ding* WE HAVE A WINNER!!  What you see above are bottles soaking in the tub so I can easily remove the labels when I return home tonight. In the meantime, my four year […]

Saturday night’s home brew tasting turned out to be a lot of fun.  There were like 50 people there, tons of kids running around, and each beer I tried was well-conceived and expertly crafted.  It also taught me that there’s always someone who can outdo you, no matter what you’re into. Those of you who […]

Okay, so Sunday’s Brew Day and I’m wondering when I should taste what I’m making.  When I cook, I’ll take a little taste now and again to see how things are coming, and add a dash of this or that to get the flavor on course.  My wife on the other hand is big on […]

Most of my brewing stuff just arrived, and the first thing I opened was the box for my Bourbon Barrel Porter.  Popping it open, I discovered this brew is going to be  A LOT more complicated than I thought.  Instead of a simple extract brew, it’s a partial grain brew, with a pound of mixed grains, two types of hops, […]