beer bottling time

If you remember my previous post a couple weeks ago, Brett and I used a brew kit to brew our own beer. It's now been a couple weeks and the beer has been fermenting in a glass jug. {not going to lie, it smells pretty bad}

Now it's time to take the fermenting liquid and transfer it into bottles in order for it to carbonate for a couple more weeks.

The process is a little trickier than it sounds. First you have to sterilize all the bottles and let them air dry. Next, dissolve 3 tablespoons honey with 1/2 cup water in a sanitized pot. {It will vary from sugar to honey to maple syrup; depends on the beer you are making} Then, take the jug filled with beer and funnel the liquid into the pot. Make sure the sediment at the bottom of the jug does not get sucked up into the pot. Once everything is in the pot, it must be siphoned into each bottle.

Once you have transferred all the liquid into the bottles, you must put it in a dark place again where it will not be disturbed. The bottles will stay here for a couple more weeks until it has carbonated. Once you are sure it's ready to go, the bottles can be transferred into the refrigerator. Allow it to chill for 24 hours before you drink it.


Don't forget to come back and check in for the final post - drinking time!

X x

Brooklyn Brew Shop Beer Making Kit

For Christmas I gave Brett a beer making kit, not knowing what kind of work was ahead of us.

One Saturday, inspiration stuck and we decided today was the day to begin the beer brewing process. There were a few items that we needed to purchase before we could begin any brewing. After spending most of the day of running from Target to BevMo, to grocery stores, we were ready. Of course by this time it's 9 o'clock and we have a several hours of brewing ahead of us.

Here is a quick rundown of the steps it took to brew 1 gallon of beer:

The first and most important step that needs to be done is sanitizing everything. Otherwise bacteria can grow and kill the yeast and the beer will not be made. We definitely made sure to keep everything sanitized and re-sanitized as often as possible.

The first step of making beer is to boil the grains and make sure to keep them boiling for a entire hour, stirring every so often. After the sixty minutes is up it's time to "mash it out." First, take the mash that you just boiled and put it into a strainer and sit it on top of a new pot. You are then going to pour boiling hot water through the mash several times until you have gone through 4 liters of water.

Once that is finished, you are going to boil the liquid again for another hour, making sure that it is constantly boiling. Every 15 minutes you must stir in a small amount of the hopps. {they looks like rabbit pellets!} 

Once the hour has passed, it's time for an ice bath. Quickly take the boiling pot full of liquid and surround it with ice cold water. You will see we filled up the sink with ice and cold water. You want to get the temperature way down until it reaches the desired temperature, about 70°F.

Once it is ready, take the liquid and pour it through a strainer into your gallon jug. This will prevent any sediment from getting into the jug.

 

Now, you wait! Put the glass jug into a dark corner where it will not be disturbed for a couple weeks. Once all the bubbling and gasses have been released it is time to bottle. Be sure to check back soon to see how the bottling process is done!

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preview / reflections of the greek islands

We made it safely back from our vacation and as happy as I am to have real water pressure and be in a real city again, part of me is ready to hop back on a plane and do it all again! This whole unpacking and organizing and commuting and working this just isn't the bee's knee's.
Anyway, onto happier times. To get to/from Greece we had to fly through London and since we were leaving on July 29th, {2 days after opening ceremonies} we decided to pick a flight with a long overlay so that we could go & explore London and the Olympics. We arrived in London about 1pm on the Monday and went straight on the underground into town. We weren't really sure where to start so we just got on and then decided we would figure it out as we go. Here is the great thing about London, they were so informational and helpful about the Olympics, a fantastic host. They have underground maps obviously on the trains, but they changed them up and put writing on the stops where the Olympic events were held. So we went straight for the village to see what that was all about. It was so busy and hectic and unfortunately we couldn't actually get into the village since we didn't have tickets for anything but we still were able to stand around and take some pictures. Then we found "beer gardens" that were set up with a big screen and some beer/snacks around so we sat in a couple different areas and watched some events.
The only thing I really wanted to do and I told Brett this since I saw it, was go see the London Bridge with the Olympic Rings. Unfortunately when we got there, {just my luck} the rings had been up all day & no one knew why. We stayed around there all night and they never came down. I was so disappointing. We did walk across the bridge and I got a shot of them against the bridge. Not the same, whatever.  I did get a fabulous shot of the bridge at night, lit up with all the different colors. Then about midnight when the last train was going back to the airport we got on that and just stayed in the airport until 5.30am when everything opened up and got on our plane that departed for Athens.

The Greek Islands were pretty incredible. I lot different than Brett & I had imagined, but at the same time was exactly what I was picturing. Each island was completely different. It had its own personality and different people and way of going about things. We went to a total of 4 different islands, staying 3 or 4 nights, except Santorini which was only 1. As soon as we got used to the island we were on it was time to leave and then explore / figure out / conquer the next. We did an amazing job and I am so happy with our selections, I wouldn't have changed much. Maybe just a couple little tweaks, but nothing big.
I have decided to split up the posts by island since each island was so different. So without further ado; these are a few of my favorite pictures as well as a little preview of what's to come while I sort through 400+ photos and get them ready to share with you.

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exploring uncharted territory

I have lived in California my entire life, grew up in the bay area and went to LA for college, but I think you already knew that. From there I have ventured elsewhere, San Diego - Santa Barbara - San Luis Obispo - Napa - Sacramento - Tahoe - Kirkwood... you get the idea. But I have actually never been to Davis! Which, in case you aren't familiar, it is just south of Sacramento.. like 20 minutes south. I guess I have never really had a reason to go, it was always just a little dot on the freeway as I drove past it. Well this weekend Brett and I drove up after work because one of his friends just graduated from UC Davis with his Law degree. We arrived later in the evening and went to dinner and bar hopped a little, celebrating and toasting every step of the way- it was really a great evening. The next morning we woke up and I wanted to explore the area a bit more since it was dark last night. I am pretty much just in love with Davis right now. It is the perfect quaint-but-not-so-quaint town at the same time. Everyone is riding their bikes and walking to the town, there are fabulous little restaurants everywhere all with out door seating available. I thought I was in love then, until I came across the most amazing frozen yogurt place {although really it was a candy shop with frozen yogurt on the side} There were six different kind of frozen yogurt followed by an entire wall dedicated to different kinds of candy. Then they had jars full of  chocolate, peanut butter, caramel sauces, jars of cookies and then tons of fresh fruit to choose from. You can see the pictures below, it was incredible. After that we found our way back to the car to hit the road.

As we are driving back in the direction of home, we decide to swing by Berkley and visit a another friend of Brett's and his girlfriend who live there. Surprise!! I have never been to Berkley before. I am sure most of you where where it is, but it is just north of Oakland and across the bay from San Francisco. It was a nice day but there was fog so you couldn't really see much of the city :[ But we got a tour of the campus, it was absolutely amazing and the huge clock tower that is in the middle was a sight to be seen. After walking through it all, we ended up on the main downtown area and had a bite to eat. There were all kind of restaurants and shops of course in true Berkley fashion "organic" "all natural" signs everywhere :] but it was still so much fun.

After leaving Berkley we had to quickly head home to do a quick clothing change and then go to a family friend's house to celebrate their daughter who just graduated from USC. The weekend was pretty non-stop but I really enjoyed getting to see two new places in California as well as celebrate the accomplishments of others!

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cinco de mayo festivities

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day with lots of sunshine! In the morning through lunch time I went round to the local community pool my parents and I belong to. I swam there on the team until I was 18 as well as coached and gave private swim lessons every summer for about 5 years (also where i met Brett!) Anyway so they were having a little party with strawberry margaritas, and gin fizz's and lots of great snacks. After it was over we decided it was such a beautiful day we went back on our bikes to get swim suits and towels, make our own batch of margaritas and took them back to the pool to take a little swim and then tan a little. Then as the sun was starting to go down it was back into normal clothes and off to find some delicious tacos, the one picture above was a $1 street taco Brett tells me was delicious! I had my own fish tacos later with of course another margarita close by. I also decided to take my new light faded ripped jeans from Zara and my new neon yellow shoes out for some fun, what do you think? I hope you all have a fabulous week ahead!

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