All Grain Brewing

Now that we finally have settled we thought we should really pursue the self sufficient life. For Kris that means making bread, soap and generally cooking up a storm but for me apart from the fruit and vegetable growing it means getting serious about making beer. Finally it's time to have ultimate control over all the ingredients by brewing from scratch. At its essence beer is about four ingredients: water, malted barley, hops and yeast. Thanks to homebrewing legend Charlie Papazian I have a fairly good idea of the process in theory but as ever the practice isn't always the same.....My first brew involved some back breaking hauling of 9 gallons of water from the upstairs bathtub and some wort chilling in the snow. Thankfully Kris gave me the bright idea of filling the brewpot with a pitcher and our kitchen sink now has an adapter to the copper tubing that cools the beer before adding the yeast. Genius. Anyway I feel like I'm on the road to a lifetime of brewing. Yeehaw! Below is the brew in the bag technique on the go.