My Garden

Getting started on the spring garden.  So far I put down asparagus, garlic, onions and potatoes.  I'm using a combination of raised beds, smart pots and buckets.  I'm off to a good start.

Fischer Amber Ale

This is a French ale with a crisp taste, slightly bready or fruity with a light bitter clean finish.  I can see my self making a clone of this with summer fast approaching. 

Sauerkraut

I love all things fermentation.  Sauerkraut is not only delicious, it's very healthy and a great easy way to preserve your cabbage crop.  Sailors found out years ago that it is packed with vitamin C and is essential for warding off scurvy if you are living off salt pork and rum. 

The quick and dirty way is to get a head of cabbage, two quart jars and a home brew.  Slice the cabbage into long strings and lightly dust with salt and squeeze it with your hands to bruise it till the juices come out.  Now pack the cabbage into the jars. Dissolve about a tablespoon of salt into a gallon of water and cover the cabbage with this brine.  Now put the lids on nice and loose and put jars in something to catch the mess.  It two or three days they will begin to bubble, that's the fermenting.  Give them a month and then scrap any of the harmless white mold off the top of the brine, tighten the lids and store in the fridge

Preparing it this way gives you pure unprocessed kraut. Which has all kinds of good stuff in it. Now, drink the homebrew and be merry!

Vanilla Porter

Over the weekend I brewed up a vanilla porter at the request of my lovely assistant.  She did most of the work though, as I directed and provided the heavy lifting.  She did a great job on her first batch. Two days later and the fermentation is roaring away.  The whole house smells like malt and bread dough.  I love it! Can't wait to get this one in a keg.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Thought I'd post this because it is an ingredient that will be used in brewing future batches of goodness.

The process is ridiculously easy.  Simply find a water tight jar, pack with vanilla beans, cover with vodka and wait a year.  Strain off the organic bits and the result is vanilla extract.

Here I have packed half a pound of beans into each quart jar. Just from the little packing I did, I already had a tablespoon of oil in the bottom!  I just guessed at the weight.  No big deal because I will combine the two before packaging.

And that my friends, is how you make vanilla extract.

Saratoga IPA

An IPA offering from Old Saratoga Brewery of NY. Boasting citrus undertones and a lighter hop than one would expect from an IPA.

Sam Adams winter lager.

First glass of chocolate stout

Test glass of the stout, I put it back to force carb a little more. 
It's more of a porter than a stout, and the chocolate is slightly overpowered by the hopps.
But, I like it!  Can't wait to see how it taste after a month of conditioning in the keggerator.