Back to Brewing

Last weekend, when I felt it was far enough past the software release that I could travel outside Eagan city limits, the family and I met Kyle for breakfast at the Uptown Diner (four egg greek omelets are two damn big, and I use the word two purposefully in reference to the eggs) and then went over to the brewery store to ponder a homebrew kit to make for the first time in many years.

This week, Kyle came over and I broke out my Father's Day present from 3+ years ago - a deep frying kit - to cook up the Cream Stout kit I purchased last weekend. It's happily burbling away behind me as I type. It's a very healthy noise for a carboy full of proto-beer.

Here's Kyle. He was in charge of the gas flow. The outdoor cooker is excellent for fine tuning the heat. On the flat top stove in the kitchen I can barely get a boil. It was one of the reasons I quit brewing, because nothing would cook right.


Here it is, boiling energetically. When I state I couldn't get a good boil on the flat top stove, I mean I couldn't get a good boil with half this much liquid. Being able to boil up several gallons makes for a better tasting beer because you don't have to add (much) water on top of the mixture, it all gets cooked up together.


And this was my makeshift cooler. I have a copper cooling coil, but dropping it in the pot makes a huge mess. This seemed like a great way to cool it down and water the yard at the same time. I know - there's some dirt, but it never came near the pot. It's the fastest I've ever cooled a pot, and it was twice the usual liquid.


So in two weeks I should have something I can bottle or keg. I'm looking forward to my first drinkable production in many years.