Home Brew

Jarrod and I have become a couple of home brewers. We are about to brew our 3rd and 4th batches tomorrow. This time around we are going to do two at once, since we have enough equipment and bottles when it comes time for bottling. Not only have we been saving bottles as much as we can, we scored 118 bottles at Brewfest a couple weekends ago, which was so awesome. That was about $140 worth of beer we didn't have to buy and consume over time.

I bought Jarrod his home brew equipment last Christmas, and his first batch was a Honey Nut Brown. It wasn't bad for a first timer, but it was very sweet; too much honey.

The last batch he did earlier this year was a "Tangelo Heifeweizen". The recipe was intended for blood oranges, but he couldn't find anywhere that sold those. So he bought tangelos instead. It was better than the first batch, for sure. Not very bitter with a touch of citrus.

These next two are going to be a red American ale and a stout. The red is called a "Brickwarmer Red" and is a winter beer with warm spices, I think. The stout will be a Chocolate Milk Stout. I have a running joke with this, because it means two different things depending where you place your inflection. If you say chocolate milk stout, it sounds like you're making a stout with chocolate milk. That's not the case. Actually, it's a chocolate milk stout, haha, which means there is lactose in it. Hence, making a milk stout. So it's a milk stout with chocolate in it (and there will actually be chocolate nibs in the brewing.)

People think dark beers will taste bitter or like tar, but that is far from the case. They can be kind of sweet, and taste like chocolate, or coffee, or both. Does everyone start with a coffee stout when they turn 21? Probably not. But no one starts with a dry wine either. You gradually work up to it, and once you do, they're quite good.