Prickly Pear Bloom

The Husband is a homebrewer. I started it, years ago, when I planted the idea, “Oh, wouldn’t it be great to brew our own beer?” We drink our fair share of beer in this house. I convinced him that we should try it, and we picked up a basic kit for an amber ale, and we both brewed it up. I think I may have helped with the next batch too, but then I got bored, my interest became focused on other things, as is opt to happen, and then he began down the road that starts at idea, passes hobby with some overnight stays at intensive research and joining forums. He brewed from pre-made kits for awhile, where the main ingredient was malt syrup, but he soon invested in some more equipment and started brewing from all grains, and then began making up his own recipes. He entertained the thought of getting even LARGER and more expensive crazyass equipment, but then life hit the fan. We were both consumed with wedding planning, and then honeymoon going, and then house buying, and then house selling, and brewing went by the wayside. Well, this weekend, he finally got back on the horse. I took notes.

0900 The Husband searches for all of his equipment, and places it in a rather large pile in the middle of the kitchen. He surveys the scene as I make myself a cinnamon roll and cup of coffee.

0902 The pets investigate. Nari sniffs these things that he knew resided in our house, but that he’s never experienced being put to use. He’s confused.

0940 Supplies assembled, The Husband lugs everything upstairs to take over the bathroom, and washes the large, bulky buckets and things in the bathtub

0950 I finish watching the movie we started 4 days ago and decide that this would be a nice time for a bath. This feeling quickly passes.

0957 The Husband wonders where his recipes are.

1004 I gaze out the window at the falling snow. Blizzard, is more like it. Snow? Really? I was just saying hello to you, Spring, and then you flip your hair at me and giggle daintily as you say, “Not quite, missy!” I started to see what our backyard looks like under all that snow that we had this winter, imagining where I might put plants and flagstone paths. The puddles had started to drain away from the sidewalks as I got used to running outside again. In fact, I was so inspired that I ran an extra mile on Tuesday. And now, snow again. On the day after Spring officially started. Blast.

1005 Read Angie’s comment and lament that the hyacinth buds that I saw two days ago are now covered in snow.

1045 The Husband fills the gigantic pot full of water and puts it on to boil. Well, not to boil, yet. To bring it up to 170 degrees for mashing, the first step of converting the proteins in the grains. He hasn’t had any coffee or breakfast this morning yet, all in the name of beer. Beer is important to us.

1048 Time to grind the grain. “Where’s my grinder!” Obscenities float up from the basement.

1106 The Husband breaks the nutrient pack in the yeast to get it going, and does a little dance in the kitchen as he shakes it all up.

1112 We speculate on when we will crack open the first beer.

1128 The water is hot enough and the grains go in.

1218 It smells like barley in the house. I love the smell of barley. Beer is healthy for you. Whole grains.

1227 “I think we have a full conversion. Which is good, considering how old the grains are.” Hooray! Next comes juggling hot liquids. Always fun.

1228 I wander around the house with too much caffeine coursing through my veins, unable to focus, picking up a couple of things to tidy the counter here, moving the pile of gocco prints to sign and number them. But I can’t find my pen. Taking a couple of pictures. Looking for the cats. Tidying some more.

1241 I open up a bottle of beer.

1253:23 I hear a splash and a groan from the kitchen. The Husband forgot that the lid was on the bucket, tried to pour water in, got water everywhere.

1253:25 I go fetch a towel.

1257 The Husband vows never to brew beer again.

1258 The barley flavored water goes on to boil.

1331 The Husband notices that there is nowhere to put the spent grains. We always used to toss them in the compost bin, but since we’ve moved, we don’t have one yet. As he decides what to do, The Husband does an astounding impression of a garbage disposal. Really astounding. I wish you could hear it.

1354 It’s still snowing. The beer still isn’t boiling. The Husband brings the hops to me to smell. I love the smell of hops, spicy, green. Suzie didn’t much care for the smell. She’s never liked beer.

1401 Finally it’s boiling. The Husband lets me throw the hops in.

1415 I finish my book.

1427 The Husband wrestles with hoses. Suzie facilitates.

1514 It’s done! Elapsed time: 6 hours 14 minutes. Roughly.

Then he strained it, cooled it, put it into a bucket for fermentation, pitched the yeast in, and set it aside. This probably took another half an hour, but I stopped counting. Now it will be a few days/couple of weeks for it to ferment. Then eventually we will have homebrewed beer. Hooray!