Ten Gallons on a Weekend
With all we have to do today, how can we add in the brewing of beer and still make ends meet? I am sure you are running from morning to night, and find myself doing the same. But, when it comes to brewing, I seem to work harder at focusing. On Saturday, we brewed five gallons of Irish Red. This is one of my favorites and is easy to get right. After mixing the grains in the mash tun and blending in the hot water, I sealed up the tun and went out to mow grass. I got in an hour of mowing before I needed to open the mash tun and start the sparge process. Once I had the wort transferred to the boil kettle and had a nice rolling boil, I headed back out and got in another hour of mowing.
Sunday was much the same; except we were brewing a brown beer. Modified this one to improve the proteins by adding oats. As with all oat products, this one is great for the heart, and helps reduce cholesterol 
(I tell myself this anyway.) If you are brewing beer and saying, “What is he talking about,” you must be brewing from a kit and can put it together in an hour. We brew from grains and it takes quite a bit longer, but the quality rivals any craft beer you can buy.
I see this balancing or juggling-of-balls in use most weekends by parents running to the soccer or ball parks and yet still getting work at home done. The old saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” I don’t know how accurate that may be, but I do know that the going can get tough at times. Luckily, my days of running to the soccer fields and ball parks is over for a while and I get to insert “beer brewing” instead! If you are still running to the soccer fields, just think of all the fun you have ahead of you.
Add comment April 25th, 2011
