Queen of Beer
I used to really hate beer, just the smell would make my nose wrinkle. In fact, I when I lived in Germany during the fall of 2002 (fall=Oktoberfest) I didn’t drink a single drop. It took me until about 2006 to actually find a beer that I liked, I was a wine-girl after all, and even then I only drank it when we went out because it was the cheapest thing to order. My how times have changed!
My husband LOVES beer, and not just in a frat boy kind of way. He tastes the nuances in the beer and understands how all of the flavors work together, similar to any good chef. He introduced me to the wonderful world of craft beer and I haven’t looked back since. It starts with a “gateway beer” like Sam Adams Summer Ale or Stone IPA – good strong flavors with a lot of personality, enticing you to try more. And then you progress to Alesmith, Ommegang and many other micro micro-brews. The next logical step? Make your own!
Ronnie’s been making beer since last April and has actually produced some pretty fantastic stuff – he even won first prize at the San Diego County Fair for his IPA! I’ve been watching him brew for a year and a half now and I couldn’t help but think “I can totally do that”. So, through our homebrew club “QUAFF” I learned about a women-only beer competition called “Queen of Beer” taking place in northern California and decided I would enter.
I began by choosing a style of beer and American Pale Ale sounded so delicious, especially in the summer heat. Then it was off to Home Brew Mart to get my grains, hops and yeast (see – just like cooking!). The guys behind the counter definitely gave me a strange look, but it was more bemused than anything. I got home and began collecting my tools: coverted cooler – check, digital thermometer – check, turkey fryer – check. I was feeling confident and excited to see how everything was going to go.
Anyway, so I’m truckin’ along, getting my water up to the right temperature, using Ronnie for manual labor (aka pouring gallons of 156 degree water into the cooler so that I could steep my lovely grains), taking time to inhale the lovely bready fumes that my grains are releasing and loving it. Suddenly, there’s a flurry of things that need to get done RIGHT NOW! Strike the grains (to keep them from releasing more sugar), attach a hose to the cooler so that we can start draining it, measure how much is coming out but DO NOT LET THE GRAIN GET THROUGH THE HOSE. AHHHH!!! Seriously folks, this should not be stressful. In the end, the kitchen floor was a mess, I had a whole new appreciation for how much you have to baby the newborn beer, but my wort was now bubbling away happily in the turkey fryer.
After an hour I funneled it into my glass carboy, let it cool down and added my yeast. Check out the happy beer!
That was a few weeks ago, now my beer is bottled (and quite tasty, if I do say so myself!) and ready to be shipped to Placerville, California where hopefully it will get some good reviews! I’ll let you know what I hear – meanwhile, get thee to a home brew store and start creating your own tasty beverages!
Category: Travel & Culture, US & Canada
