brewmaster

Without question, the greatest invention in the

history of mankind is beer.

Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention,

but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. ~Dave Barry

We made beer! Since we live in the land of lagers and no one has yet heard of using hops to improve the taste of beer, we needed to take matters into our own hands. The kit was a birthday present for my hubby and he's already addicted.

It's quite the process, but there are many helpful sites out there. We especially liked John Palmer's How to Brew. Let me warn you, there is lots of sterilizing and washing up involved! The fermenter sat in the middle of our living room floor (a place of reverence, and the coolest spot in the house) for 10 days. Bottling is the best part of the process because you get to use fun tools like a bottle capper. Five gallons of ale became 46 silver-starred bottles. These sat in dark boxes in our kitchen for the next 3 weeks until they were ready to drink. Now, we've got cheap (works out to about 50 cents a bottle!) and tasty ale!