92 Bottles of Beer in the 'Fridge

Saturday was the day Mr. & Mrs. Brewmeister bottled 92 bottles of the latest creation - an all grain brew inspired by Jesus himself, or at least his birthday, hence the name "Christmas Ale". Check out the fridge full o' beers. After about 4 weeks this should be carbonated, conditioned and ready to drink!!And check out the new look the Beast is sporting - painted black, new propane piping

and just to ease Daddy Yard Sale's worried mind - check out the attached fire extinguisher!

IT IS HERE!!!

Fellow Yardsailors, it's my great honor to unveil the latest in Yardsale Brewery's Home Brewing technology - what we affectionately refer to as the BWSTTBC, which of course stands for Big Welded Steel Three Tiered Brewing Contraption. Just because we're lazy, we've shortened BWSTTBC to "the Beast". Words do the Beast no justice, so in order to justify this post, here's what it looks like:

Yesterday Daddy Yard Sale and I brewed our first all grain beer. It is a clone of the Saint Arnold Chrismas Ale, a dark brown ale with literally 1 ton of grain in a 10 gallon batch - ok, maybe not 1 ton, but it seemed like it. There was definitely a lot of grain, which will surely produce a kick ass, ass kicking beer (by that I mean not weak in the taste or alcohol departments). Instead of Christmas Ale, but in keeping with the Christian spirit of the season I'm toying with the names Jesus Loves You Ale, Jesus Loves This Ale, Screw the Frankincense and Myrrh Baby Jesus Rather Have This Ale (maybe a bit long...) or All I Got Kyle For Christmas is a Bottle of This Ale (long, yes but also true). Since it won't be unveiled until Leslie's Baby Shower in January, maybe we can come up with some other suggestions and do a Survivor like ritual to find the winner. Or maybe we'll do what we've always done and Brewmeister will come up with a name in a few minutes and print out some artless labels... Allright, enough typing, here are some more pictures that are worth at least a dozen or two words.

Big thanks go out to Brewmeister's Dad for helping me put the Beast together and another big thanks to Rudy, Brewmeister's Dad's friend who gave us the steel and showed us how to weld. Oh, and I almost forgot big thanks go out to Daddy Yard Sale for showing me the importance of life by running like a girl when the Beast caught on fire. He admitted to running, but says he didn't scream like a girl, although I definitely thought I heard a high pitched sound as he bolted for the door. Probably just the sound of the propane as I turned it off...I just hope Mommy Yard Sale doesn't check Daddy Yard Sale's underwear...

Can't wait until January when we taste what we've worked so hard to make!! And remember, Beer is God's way of saying he loves you and wants you to be happy.

Brewmeister tries to say goodbye to his pool table - care to help?

Unfortunately, the pool table is being evicted from it's home and I'm desperately trying to find a new home for it!! Email Brewmeister at dburrows4@cox.net at he will make you a great deal on this beatiful pool table, but he might cry a little bit when doing so...

Labor Day Weekend Festivus

The party started off early, around noonish, with a lot of promise - bright sunshine, clear water, cold beers both real (the Cheeky Bass Ale and the Honey Weisatch) and near beer (Coors light). Among the furious drinking of the near beer to try to stay cool and of the real beer because of the fantastic flavor and addictive quality (probably due to the fermentable strain of crack that Daddy Yardsale insisted on adding just before bottling) rounds of volleyball broke out.

More beer drinking, more volleyball, like a fortune teller, early in this process Brewmeister came up with the questionable slogan "Beer So Good, You'll Shit Yourself!!" - only thinking it to be a clever marketing ploy, he had no idea the evening would prove out this catchy saying (by the way, it's best said in a Scottish Fat Bastardesque accent). If you don't know what I mean, you weren't one of the five people waiting for Daddy Yardsale to come out of the bathroom... We told him not to go toward the light and eventually he did come back to us, weakened, swaying uncontrollably and in a cloud of stench. This could be a problem with the bottle conditioned, unfiltered state of the beers or just a problem with Daddy Yardsale's constitution. As I would feel partly to blame if it was the former, I'm going to assume it is the latter and happily go on with life.

As far as the two new beers, I'll start with the Honey Wiezatch - starts off with a crazy white foamy head, after waiting patiently for the foam to subside, you're rewarded with a smooth, slightly hoppy, complex beer with an interesting fruity, spicy finish with a hint of smoke...where did that come from?...we think it was the Belgian Wit yeast that we used and judging by Daddy Yardsale's trip to the bathroom - I think he'd agree... Check out the cool label...

Now, I've saved the best for last, the English Pale Ale style Cheeky Bass Ale. A bold, slightly hoppy beer with a lot of flavor and in completely unofficial and biased taste test it kicked ass over the real Bass Ale. This one was a keeper, a real collector's beer - also check out the cool label endorsed by none other than Daddy and Mommy Yardsale, go figure...

The next event should be even better as Brewmeister is feverishly working on a three tiered all-grain brewing sculpture for complete brewing madness. Until the next one, fellow Yardsailors, I bid you a fond farewell!!

The Second Tasting - Flagstaff Honey Amber

Fellow Yardsailors - By all accounts the second tasting was a raging success. Everyone liked, no I should in all modesty correct myself, loved the Flagstaff Honey Amber. Daddy Yard Sale believes we need to create our own version and sell it at our future Yard Sale Brewery Bar and Grill.


The taste: sweet, but not too sweet, smooth, complex maltiness with a hint of caramel and honey - OK, that's all the beer/wine tasting critic writing I'm allowing - it was a big hit and 44 bottles of it lasted only a couple hours and several people said they would buy the beer from us if that was possible...


On to our next batch, right now we've got a partial mash honey wheat, but I'm thinking a visit to What Ale's Ya may be in order to get a different mix and leave the honey beer theme for at least the next brew.


In my party hosting fashion, I didn't take any pictures, I'll have to ask Daddy and Mommy Yard Sale to post the ones they took. But, I will post the label design (it took the better part of an hour to create). A couple people told me that their friends, who are graphic artists or designers, could improve on the design. Since I'm no artist or graphic designer, I'm sure that's the case and would welcome any improvements that we could use for the next label.

By the way, the Great American Beer Festival is coming up in October. Check out http://www.beertown.com/events/gabf/index.htm, I think Brewmeister and Daddy Yard Sale may need to make a pilgrimage to Colorado for this...

Second Batch is Prepared

We have bottled the second batch. It is a honey brown I believe. This one was much easier and I cant wait until we can taste it. With Davids PP&E purchases we should have some good carbonation...

June 23rd - next tasting...

Here is a random pic of me and my kid!

The Second Attempt

OK, last Friday Daddy Yard Sale (aka Kyle) and I started the second attempt at brewing perfection. This time it is a Honey Amber using liquid yeast - again, all from a kit we bought online. The initial brewing went fine, actually much better than last time - no sanitizer spillage. But after more than 24 hours, no fermentation had started. Which led to a phone call to our brewery supply store, which led to the suggestion to cool down the fermenter. To give you an indication of how sophisticated our brewing process is, take a look at the advanced apparati that we created at the suggestion of the brewery supply store dude. Yes, it is a wet towel draped over the fermenter and a fan blowing on it. I apologize for the somewhat blurry pictures but it looked good in the lensfinder at the time...

Keep in mind that the advanced equipment we've employed was not to help the fermentation to start, but to help out in the ultimate quality of the brew since the temperature in the house was about 75 degrees (thus the temperature of the fermenter) and it really needed to be between 68 and 72 degrees (more than I can bear to pay the electric company for the additional air conditioning). The fermentation as it turns out started a several hours later, but well within the window of the lifespan of our good friend Mr. Yeastcell. Check out the crazy bubbling action of the airlock.

So, when my wife came home to find the closet door open with the electric shock mat at the closet entrance (to keep out the ever curious cats) and the fan blowing on the wet towel draped fermenter (the above stated advanced apparati), she knew what a good thing we had going. After telling me what a great job I'd done, she suggested in no uncertain terms that the Sh_t had to get the hell out of the house and into a better place - the garage. I thought long and hard about her suggestion for about 5 minutes and after visiting our local Home Depot found an inexpensive refrigerator and some good advice from a home brewer working at Home Depot (a Home Depot home brewer...hhhmmm...). And this is what we've advanced to - a refrigerator with an outside temperature control to keep the fermenter at the optimum yeasty temperature. All the credit for the refrigerator and the controller go to my sweet wife - Thank You Baby!!!

Tasting Pics

We dont have too many - but that is cause our hands were full of beer!

OK - Now We Have Been Drinking It For A While

So it is 7.45 pm and we have gone through 3/4 of the beer. We have decided that our first experience RULES! Everyone is drinking it and and seems to like it. We will still need to follow up on the carbonation, but right now we don't care much! We have noticed that there is considerably less "belching" - we may be on to something. The "Belchless" brew may continue...

Oh yeah - the hygrometer says our beer is 2% alcohol. We have decided it is MUCH MORE! We have also decided to bottle at a lower temperature to enhance the carbonation. But all in all I would say it is a GREAT experience and we are inspired to keep on. But our plans to brew another batch tonight faded with our first beer.

Our First Attempt!

I am drinking our first Amber right now! The taste is good, nice and smooth. It does need some additional carbonation - we will have to do some research on how to beef that up. I would say that it resembles a heavier European beer (Alastair concurs - and he is from Scotland). It is very strong and nicely sweet. I must say it complements my cigar nicely. I am on my 20th ounce and I have a nice buzz - I think I need to take a bath. (Ask Brewmeister about his San Diego bath adventures!)