Beer & Crawfish

Ah yes… two of my favorite things.

The weather was finally nice on a weekend so Chad & Melanie and Kelly & I went to the Saint Arnold’s brewery on Saturday.  Kelly was a trooper.  She can’t drink and was really sick but hung in there with us as we sipped down some sweet crazy goodness.

Afterwards we went to the Tequila Lopez 8th Annual Crawfish Cookoff.  We’ve been to this the last 3 years and its always a good time.  It’s all you can eat crawfish from several different cooking teams and live music.  I ate about 8lbs of crawfish, went home and took a nap.  I’d say that’s a pretty good day.

First Home Brew - Part III

On Saturday I tried out my first batch of beer. It wasn't very carbonated and there wasn't a head on the beer when I poured it. It tasted a little sort of like cider. According to this article, I may have put too much sugar in the bottles. I thought I followed the instructions as best I could, but it's not drinkable.

Hopefully the second batch of Ocktoberfest will be better. I think this time I'm going to use smaller bottles, dark glass, and make sure I get the sugar amount exactly right this time.

Cheap Beer

By the time I bottled my first batch of beer I wanted to have the ingredients to make a second. The kit only came with one recipe. I looked online and the normal brew packs that come in all different flavors and make 2 gallons run about $13. I remembered seeing a variety 3 pack at Bed Bath & Beyond so after dinner a few nights ago, Kelly and I stopped by the BBB by our house to check.

They had two left and they were $30 each. They come with a pale ale, a wheat beer, and a Oktoberfest. That's a better deal than online, so I got one. I also had a $10 off coupon on $30 or more that expired that day.

When I went to check out, it rang up as 1/2 off! So I got the other one too. So what would have cost me $78 online, I was able to get for $20. Nice! I think I'll try the Oktoberfest next.

First Home Brew - Part II

Its time to bottle my first batch of brew. On Friday it had been it fermenting for 10 days. First I got all the bottles together and rinsed them out. Since I had two gallons of beer to bottle, I gathered up all the bottles I could. If I was going to use glass bottles, I would have to get metal lids and a capper. I'll get that stuff eventually, but this time I'm just going to use old soda bottles. The instructions say this is okay. In order to test if the beer is ready to bottle the instructions say, "Taste it. If it tastes like flat beer, then its ready to bottle. If its sweet, let it ferment longer." I tasted it and it definateley tasted like room-temperature flat beer.

The first step is to sanitize the bottles, this is done by putting the rest of the no-rinse power in a 1 gallon container and mixing it with warm water. Then you fill all the containers half way, shake them up, and let them sit a while.

After you drain the bottles, you put a measured amount of sugar in each bottle. This is what will make the beer sweeter and cause it to carbonate.

Then you fill each bottle almost all the way full using the tap from the fermenter.

Then you screw on the caps (provided) and turn it over a few times to make sure all the sugar dissolves.


Viola! I have two gallons of beer. Its actually pretty clear. The instructions said that there might be some sediment in it from the yeast, but i didn't see any of that. Below you can see the writing on the opposite side of the bottle and my fingers.

Now I have to condition the bottles. Now I just have to set them somewhere out of the sunlight at room0temperature for a week. I chose the bottom of the pantry. In a week they will be carbonated, and I'll put them in the fridge to cool.

Waiting is the hardest part.

First Home Brew - Part I

I've been wanting to try to brew my own beer for a while. I typically go overboard on paraphernalia for new hobbies so I wanted to start small with this one, try it out and see if I like it before I spend too much money.

On Tuesday I broke out the new Mr. Beer Deluxe Edition Beer Kit that I got for Christmas. I assembled the fermenter and laid out all the stuff.



It seems really simple. Alot of the work is already done for you and comes with a "High Country Canadian Draft" recipe which is described as "extremely pale in color and bold in character. An exceptionally hop accented beer, it is preferred by those who demand that extra "Kick". This beer brews up clean and impressive." It takes about 2 weeks and makes 2 gallons of beer.

The possibilities are endless on what you can brew, but I'm going to just try the simple basic stuff for the first time out.

Step 1 - Sanitation
You put some water in the fermenter and you dump a little package of this no-rinse sanitizer in there along with all your utensils.

Then you let it sit for a few minutes, drain a little of the water onto a plate and take all the utensils out and put them on a plate and empty the fermenter.


Step 2 - Brewing
Put a gallon of clean water in the fermenter. I used Kroger purified water. The second hardest thing to do in the whole process was take this picture while trying to pour the water.


Then you place the malted hops in some hot water so it will pour easier.

Then you put 3 cups of water in a pot and start adding the booster. The booster is the sugar that the yeast is going to turn into alcohol and CO2.

This part was a little hard too, because the booster kept clumping up. It was hard to get it to dissolve in room-temperature water, but that's what the instructions said to do. It said to wait until it was dissolved before heating it to a boil.

Then open the can of malted hops which is thick, brown and syrupy and smells remarkable like a brewery.


Then you add the malted hops to the booster mixture. This is called the wort.

Then you pour the wort into the fermenter and spill some all over the counter, the fermenter, down the kitchen cabinets and on the floor (optional).

I guess I need a big funnel or a pot that's easier to pour out of. After I got that all cleaned up, it was time to add the yeast. I think the owner of St. Arnold's put it best when he said, "basically the way yeast works is it eats sugar, pisses alcohol, and farts CO2."

Dump them in the fermenter and mix it up.

Then screw the lid on, set it aside and wait a week or two.

It begins to bubble and you can see the CO2 being made. Tomorrow it will have been in there a week, so over the next few days I'm going to get some bottles together and proceed to the next step of conditioning.