More Ins-brew-ation

I was very fortunate to celebrate my great friends Ian and Amy's wedding recently. They had engaged (love a good pun) their friend Darren (who coincidentally had made our wedding rings) to prepare a special wedding brew for them. Darren has been brewing much longer than I have and it shows. He had converted a fridge, painted it blue, run lines inside to taps mounted on the front so that you could pour ice cold homebrew from the kegs inside it. Now that is science, and a bit of engineering too.

He had two beers on the go. A hoppy pale ale and a tasty summer ale. Still hoppy but lighter and fresher and perfect for the sunny outdoor wedding ceremony and reception. Darren's homebrew ran out well before the bottled beer did so if that isn't a vote of confidence I don't know what is. More please!

Selling to the public

Waitangi Day was a good day for another round of Settlers of Catan. This time though we had guests join us. It was time to see if the brew that I was enjoying was actually enjoyable to real people. My wife's brother and cousin were the voluntary test subjects. A bit of apprehension on their (and my) parts but after taking their first steps they were convinced that the beer was good. I knew it wasn't just being polite because they asked for another one. I was happy to oblige.

I also managed to find a way to avoid the sedimenty yuckiness. Brandy glasses. The Belgians drink beer from round glasses with stems, so why can't we too? The beer fitted perfectly and avoided that home brew cloudiness. It was also a good opportunity to use our Straffe Hendrik glasses that we had picked up on our travels in Belgium.

Bottled In

So the beer tastes alright, but there is something about pouring your beer out of a plastic bottle that just isn't as satisfying as getting your beer from a cool glass bottle. Fortunately a BBQ at our place left me with a surplus of empty beer bottles stacked high in our recycling bin (and some full ones floating around in the chilly bin....SCORE!) I'm not usually one to go through the rubbish bin but this time I decided to make an exception. Why not reuse something instead of throwing it away?

It was time for the trusty laundry sink to get another workout. This time filled up with warm water and washing liquid. The water may have been a little hot as I couldn't keep my hands in there long enough to properly fill the bottles. However a bit of maneuvering with a wooden spoon and I slowly managed to get all the bottles submerged. Twist tops didn't get a chance but I was still left with plenty of Epic, Tuatara, Monteiths and Stoke bottles, big and small. A good overnight soaking and then a check the next day to see how they were looking. They were all still labelled up, but a bit of scraping with my nails and the labels all came off pretty easily. All except the Stoke bottles that is. Their labels were firmly still firmly attached. Hmmm, turns out the labels are actually plastic stickers so they peel off easily. Should have tried that in the first place. Another sink full and another round of bottles and I now have a whole bunch of bottles of various sizes. Not enough for a full brew though. Looks like I am going to have to buy some more beer. The sacrifices I make....

I have tried my brew again too. Another bottle, and still tasty, although maybe I need to get some bigger beer glasses to try and avoid the sediment stirring up too much. Must be a smarter way to do it...