Tasting our First Homebrew

On Saturday, after two weeks of sitting in the fermentor, Josh moved the beer into the corny keg to force carbonate for a couple days. 

On Monday we tried the beer for the first time.  It has a little bit of a caramel flavor mixed with nuttiness.  At first we weren't sure if it was beer or not.  After a few pints and feeling buzzed, we knew it worked!

First Homebrew!

Well the first batch of "beer in progress" is in the fermentor.  I decided to go with a canned malt extract kit, Muntons Nut Brown Ale, for the first time as it was less work and I could ease my way into it.  It was suprisingly very simple.  The hardest part was making sure the equipment was sterilized. For that I used Glosan-NC cleaner.  I was a little worried about cooling the wort quickly enough, I sent Jinger to the store twice for ice, but with the 5 bags of ice that I went though, it cooled down in no time.    

I used the spray hose from the faucet to aerate the mixture after adding the yeast.  I know the tap water isn't sterile as some people swear by, but Corey said that this is the way he has done it and he has had success so far.  The method that Larry from Larry's Brewing Suppy told me to use called for using water straight from the tap as well, but most of the stuff I have read recommends boiling it.  Either way I had steadily bubbling in my air-lock the next morning, so somethings fermenting in there. 

I have the fermentor stored in a closet on a nice cool tile floor.  If I were yeast it seems like a nice place to work.  Hopefully they feel the same way and make us some good beer.  I also got a used Cornelius Keg from Larry's.  I scrubbed it down real good and Jinger was able to get her arm into the opening far enough to scrub the bottom. With the o-rings changed and a little elbow greese it looks like new. 

Now it is just waiting time until I am ready to keg and force carbonate.  With some advice from Corey I decided to skip the whole bottling process and go straight to keg, thanks Corey.  It cost a little bit more than I originally planned but it will save a lot of work in the long run.  If everything goes as planned Jinger and I will be sipping on our own homebrew in a couple of weeks. 

-Josh

Chest Freezer Kegerator!

I recently built a kegerator and wanted to post a little step by step to show, those of you that are interested, what I've done.

I started with a Frigidaire 7.2 cu ft. chest freezer, $200 at BestBuy. I decided not to drill through the top of the door, like some others have done, but instead build a collar for the taps to go through.

I bought a couple of nice, premium grade 2x6 at Lowe's for this. They wouldn't cut the mitered corners like I wanted so I had to do it myself. Thanks Dad for all the practice at Shaver Brothers over the years! With Jinger as my lookout I quickly "borrowed" the miter saw from the contractor who was working on the stairs down to the lake. Thank you Leon. Eight carefully measured chops later and we were well on our way.

After a little screwing, drilling and staining, the collar was starting to come together. I used some metal brakets in each of the corners and some Elmer's Glue to help hold it together. I detached the hinges from the back of the freezer and once the stain dried I siliconed the collar to the upper rim. The excitement of draft beer at home got to me so I was only able to put one coat of stain on the wood. The hinges from the lid attached easily to the collar and then I secured the collar to the freezer with a few metal brackets. It all came together pretty easy.

I didn't have the strength to wait that long for the silicon to dry but I weighted the top down with a few bins full of junk for about two hours until I felt that it was ready to go.

Jinger and I drove over to Big Al Brewing to pick out the inaugural keg. After a taste test we decided on a 1/6th barrel of Irish Red... mmmmmm!

Most of the draft beer components that I got for the fridge came from Larry's Brewing Supply in Kent, WA. That included all the gas and beer lines, CO2 tank, regulator, faucet, tap and the Ranco digital temperature controller. I bought an "anti-fatigue" rubber floor mat from Lowe's that I cut up to line the inside bottom of the fridge to help avoid the inevitable dropped keg from doing to much damage.

I decided to get a stainless steel drip tray but struggled with a good way to mount it to the fridge.  I didn't want to drill holes in the front because of the risk of hitting the heat exchange coils that run through there near the surface.  I tried glueing some magnet strips that I picked up at the craft store to the tray but they were not strong enough.  I found some wicked strong Neodimium magnets online that did the trick once Krazy glued on to the tray. 

We've got room for any combination of three 5 gal. Corney Kegs or commercial 1/6th barrel kegs.  Right now it is a keg of Big Al's Abbey Wheat, we finished the Irish Red, until I keg my first batch of homebrew!

First Blaahhgg!

We decided to start a blog to help keep in touch with family and friends throughout the world.

Even with all the fun we seem to be having, doing whatever it is we are doing,we still look forward to seeing you all again soon... hopefully not too soon!

J and J

Visit to Mount Rainier National Park

We went down to Mount Rainier National Park the other day for a few short hikes.  It is about 50 miles Southeast of Seattle so we packed a lunch and made a day of it.  It is a really beautiful mountain.  It is amazing to be down in relatively warm weather and see the glaciers up on the mountain.  We will have to come down here again when we have more time to explore and do some camping. 

We also had to clear a fallen tree from the trail so that we could get back out (and to save a trapped baby), but we will save those heroic stories for sharing over a beer.

Road Trip Part Three: Wyoming to Washington

After doing laundry and getting a good nights rest in Salt Lake City, we headed on to our next stop: Grand Teton National Park.  Just outside Grand Teton we stopped in Jackson Hole and it was freezing!  Well, a lot colder than SLC was.  I think we left at around 90 degrees out and it was about 40 or 50 in Jackson Hole.  At a visitor's center we had to sit in our car for a bit to wait out a hale storm that blew through. 

We entered Grand Teton and drove around in awe of the amazing Teton mountains.  All the campsites were full for the night so we found a site just outside the park on a small lake.  The next morning we woke early and went on a hike up to see the tallest of the Tetons.  On the drive there we saw a bunch of Bison along side the road grazing.  It was like we were on a safari. 

We read that it's a good idea to make noise every so often to prevent startling a bear.  At first we felt silly, but it paid off when just a few minutes into the hike Josh saw a bear and her cub right on the path.  We backed off a bit and waited until they moved on.  You definitely don't want to get in between a mother bear and her cub.  After 40 minutes or so of waiting and making noise (the line of hikers was backed up and about 15 people waited with us) we all decided to make a ton of noise together and force the bears to run off the trail.  It worked and we continued hiking. 
 

The veiws along the way were amazing.  Right near the top we saw a couple glacial lakes: Surprise Lake and Ampitheater Lake.  Just before the first lake we saw snow packed off to the side of the trail.  Snow... in July!  Well, we were quite high up in elevation.  We rested at Ampitheater Lake enjoying the nice weather and the view of the top.  On the way back down we ran into the same bear and her cub close to the trail.  Josh made a bunch of noise and we passed back warnings to a family who were not far behind.  We think they were black bears and not grizzly bears.  I'm glad we read up on how to handle bears if you encounter them while hiking.  After the hike we found a campsite up at Lizard Creek near Jackson Lake.  We took a quick dip in the fridgid waters of the lake and went to dinner. 

The next morning we got up early and headed on North to Yellowstone National Park.  We grabbed a campsite at Lewis Lake early since they normally get snatched up pretty quick.  There was so much to see and we knew we wanted to start with Old Faithful.  When we arrived we had just missed it.  Good thing there are tons of hot springs, small geysers and pools to see.  After following the boardwalk through the small geysers we grabbed a good seat for Old Faithful.  We waited and the crowds filled in.  After waiting about 30 minutes (Old Faithful was a little later than they predicted) it started with a small sputter, then a blast of hot water shot into the sky.  It was pretty cool to see, but we expected it to be bigger. 

The next place we stopped at was the Grand Prismatic Spring.  Driving up to it there was a rainbow hued mist lingering over the spring.  We could barely see the entire pool since it was so foggy and misty, but we caught a few glimses.  The heat and smell of all these springs and pools are so strong.  Sometimes it felt nice to be warmed by the heat, but you have to be tolerant of the smell.  We continued driving in the massive caldera of the park and saw more geysers shooting off.  We stopped at the Fountain Paint Pots too, which are mud-like bubbles that form clay looking pots.  It was a long drive that day and we made it back to our campsite to rest up for the next day of driving.
 









In the morning we hit the road early and headed out of the park.  First we hit Montana.  Then we kept driving and went through the top of Idaho.  Idaho was quick to drive through and then we hit Spokane.  Tempted with the idea that we were now four hours from Seattle we decided to keep going.  We arrived in town around 11pm and found a hotel.  Finally, we made it to Seattle on July 30th!

Road Trip Part Two: Utah Rocks!

Our first destination in Utah was Bryce Canyon National Park.  The park was not very big but it was unlike anything we had ever seen before.  The main feature in the park are the canyons filled with Hoodoos.  These hoodoos are pillars of rock eroded over time to form crazy shapes.  The pictures do not even do it justice.  By far one of my favorite parks we visited on this trip.  We hiked down around the hoodoos and wandered through the maze of pillars.  As the sun was setting it illuminated the hoodoos and looked amazing.

We played with the idea of staying at Bryce and extra day but finally decided to move on to Horseshoe Canyon in Canyonlands National Park.  On the way we drove through Capitol Reef National Park.  The road was a little sketchy but Josh maneuverd through it like a pro.  Can you see the road winding up the cliff in the picture below?

We saw parts of the Waterpocket Fold which is a giant wrinkle in the Earth's crust that stretches for about a 100 miles in Utah. 

After getting out of Capitol Reef we made our way to Horseshoe Canyon.  We knew we had to camp in a parking lot outside the park since it is not allowed in the Canyon.  We took another unpaved, bumpy road for about 25 miles to the lot where there was only one vehicle, the Park Ranger's truck.  We set up camp on the edge of the canyon and enjoyed a vibrant starry night all by ourselves.  We were blown away by how many stars we could see.  It was a picture perfect night that would be hard to recreate.  We were many miles from the nearest city, so no lights, the parking lot was barren of any trees to obstruct our view of the night sky, it must have been the new moon of the month and we were the ONLY people in the lot.  We didin't even see the Park Ranger until the next day in the canyon.  We had a private viewing of the night sky and the canyon below.  It was so clear we saw tons of shooting stars and a few satellites pass by.

The next morning we woke early to hike down into the Horseshoe Canyon.  Josh read the book by Aron Ralston "Between A Rock And A Hard Place" and we wanted to see where Aron hiked through after freeing himself from a boulder crushing his arm and wrist.  He was stranded out there for more than 6 days until he severed his arm with a pocket knife.  Just knowing of the incident we felt a little creeped out, but still enjoyed the beauty of the canyon.  On our way in we crossed paths with the Park Ranger who camped down in the canyon.  She was cleaning up a vandalized dinosaur footprint fossil.  Now that's something you don't come across every day.

 

Deep into the canyon there are places to see Rock Art from thousands of years ago.  Some looked as if it were telling a story.  Just to imagine the situations people had been in that long ago is mond boggling.  Yes, we have all read about cavemen in our history books, but it's interesting to actually be faced with a piece of work they created.  To be where they have stood.  Or to see the same beautiful canyon around them that we had been in at that moment.

 

Can you see Jinger in this picture below? She's the tiny white spec towards the bottom. This was so massive and the picture does not do it justice.

After an awesome hike in and out of Horseshoe canyon we moved on to Arches National Park.  When we got there the campsites were full so we stayed a night in a cabin in Moab, just outside the Park.  The next morning we woke early and signed up for our campsite for the next two days in Arches.  Just as Bryce Canyon was overdosed with Hoodoos, Arches was filled with well arches, hence the creative name for the park.  So many amazing formations that we lost count on how many we saw.  The two most famous in the park are Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch.  The names were accidentally switched and you can see why below.

Delicate Arch    

Landscape Arch

We had an amazing time in Arches after two days of exploring.  Along the way up north we stopped in Salt Lake City for a night to get some rest and do some laundry.  That night we met up with our friend Amy and her son Aidan who were in town visiting her brother.  It was so nice to see familiar faces from Hawaii.

The next morning we packed up and hit the road again.  We enjoyed Utah so much and know we want to go back someday and explore a little more.

 Up next: Wyoming to Washington!