Home Brew Beer!
My loving family gave me a special gift for my 60th birthday – a gift certificate to Vine Park Brewing to make my own batch of beer. This was a wonderful choice for me as I had brewed quite a bit of beer back in my college days, but haven’t taken it up since then. An added bonus was that, unknown to my family, one of the owners Vine Park (Andy) is the son of my good friend from our Europe trips, Jim Grage. Jim had never brewed there, not being a big beer drinker, so it was only natural I invited Jim and my other friend Charlie along to help.
The whole experience was fun and pretty easy. We first picked a recipe from the long list of options and settled on “Smooth Sailing” described as “A smooth, light golden ale with just enough hop bitterness.” With assistance from our BrewMistress we weighed, mixed and cooked our batch for 45 minutes. This allowed just enough time for a burger and beer across the street at Bennett’s Chop and Rail House and lucky for us it was live music night, featuring a six-man jazz combo! Also lucky was the clearly marked entrance!
We returned to cool our brew “wort” and add the yeast. The next step is to wait two weeks, then return to finish the batch. For that process we added a forth to our crew, another buddy Pat. His skill at beer tasting was important to the quality control process of bottling. The resulting beer was quite tasty, and if you haven’t yet had a sample, next time you’re over to the house just ask. We filled just over six cases and I might have just a few bottles hidden away in the basement. Thanks family for perfect gift!
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Beer brewing party
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