Bottling beer

For months, a 5-gallon batch of beer had either been sitting neglected in our closet or been aging to perfection, depending on your glass half full/half empty perspective. But last night our resident master brewer decided the time was right and did some bottling.

When washing and sanitizing the bottles, he got to try out his new bottle-drying tree (the red contraption in the foreground). It saves time and keeps the mess of dripping water to a minimum.

With me helping, it took about two hours to get the beer (a strong, coffee-flavored imperial stout) from a 5-gallon glass carboy into individual bottles. They'll sit in boxes for a few weeks now to age and carbonate before we can enjoy them.

Because of the ingredients needed, this homebrew was more expensive than usual. ~$90 in ingredients turned into ~512 ounces of beer, which works out to about $2.15 per beer (not counting the price of bottles, equipment, and time). That's pricier than most beers in stores but would be good in a restaurant.

The imperial stout is the eighth type of brew Mike's done since he started a few years ago. So far, we've also enjoyed:

• English brown ale
• Irish stout
• Rye IPA (India pale ale)
• Tripel
• ESB (extra special/strong bitter)
• Red/amber/Vienna/brown mix
• Cider (twice)

Next up is a Belgian dubbel. I'm looking forward to a very tasty fall!

The point of return

Uh, hey there! It's been a while. I don't know where my enthusiasm went, but in retrospect I don't know that we made huge advances in the last 15 months, so it's just as well that I didn't log all our mundane goings-on.

We've learned some new things, though. Mike has read a bunch of books on self-sustainability and gardening, preparing us for our soon-in-the-future lifestyle. His first attempt at composting on our porch didn't work out, but he did get a master's degree and a !job! doing good things for an environmental nonprofit. Meanwhile, I've learned to quilt:

We learned how to struggle through a marathon (not that running has anything to do with the theme of this blog; I'm just bragging):

And I learned to bale hay:

Just kidding about that one. I had nothing to do with that bale.

We're only slightly better gardeners now. But we're better about recycling, nagging other people to recycle, canning stuff, baking bread (Mike), and making cheese and cakes (me). So, progress.

And speaking of our soon-in-the-future lifestyle, the hunt for a house is on! Ideally, it'll be 15+ acres of woods with a clear acre or two for a big kitchen garden and chickens. And someday maybe goats and cows. And a dog. And Stephanie Tickle.

I plan to blog (much) more regularly about our progress as we find the future Spotty Pine Farm and implement our grand plans. We'll see how that goes.