I brewed again this past weekend.  This time it was an Imperial Stout that should be ready sometime in July.  I’m going to be adding some oak I’ve soaked in Four Roses bourbon to make it extra special good, and I’m really looking forward to tasting it.  I just hope it makes it to July. […]

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 […]

It is once again time for my annual “run around like a chicken with my head cut off and buy gifts for my spouse” day.  Irony of ironies, I am a planner by profession, but do you think that would translate into my personal life?  No way!  So I will spend the next several lunch […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

So I got my first taste of bottling my own beer this weekend, and I have to say, it’s equal parts tedium and anxiety.  First there’s all the work it takes to get the bottles ready – taking off the labels (nightmare!), cleaning the bottles, sanitizing the bottles, arranging the bottles, etc.  The only fun […]

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 […]

Okay, so I moved my first-ever beer from primary to secondary fermentation over the weekend.  It’s a bourbon barrel porter that has been fermenting for two weeks.  It will now spend another two weeks in secondary and then 10 days soaking with bourbon and oak chips. I used the beer thief to grab a sample […]

So my bourbon barrel porter is doing well.  The bubbling has slowed after a few days of rowdy gurgles and the amazing yeast cake on the top of the carboy is slipping into the murky depths.  Soon it’ll be time to siphon the beer to secondary and then add the whiskey and the oak cubes. […]

24 hours in and the yeast is loving its new home. The airlock is bubbling, the cake is rising and the bathroom is filled with perhaps the best aroma I have ever smelled.  I’m not going to make this a daily thing, but I just wanted to share my excitement that my first beer seems […]