Snow Day Brew Day

Trying out a Dunkelweizen kit from Great Fermentations. This is batch #5 of my homebrew career, first batch of 2015, and first Dunkelweizen.

Flavoring grains steeping.


Assistant Brewmaster FUZZ* watching some CatTV while the kettle comes to a boil.


Almost there!!!


Chilling the wort! WINTER IS AWESOME!


Ok, chilling the wort outside took a lot longer than I thought it would. Shoveled my driveway and it was only down to 140F. Shoveled my sidewalks and my neighbor's sidewalk and it was down to 120F. Went inside, watched Iowa State get their 20th win of the season. It took about 3.5 hours for the wort to get down around 75F.

Into the fermenter:

Easily the darkest-looking beer I've made so far.

Assistant Brewmaster Smokey* says "Hurry up and pitch the yeast so you can get my supper!"


My previous beers have all fermented in the front closet, but I'm leaving this one in a bathtub for easy cleanup, as I know from experience this yeast knows how to have a good time.


And the sun sets on another successful brew day.


* All my beers have a "less than 1% cat hair by weight" guarantee.

Beer and Cat

Smokey guarding my FUZZbräu from its namesake.

FUZZbräu is the beer I make. This is my second attempt, a German-style wheat I call Fuzziwheat. My first was a Belgian wit style I called FUZZiwit (my German beer-drinking expert pronounced it "süffig" which I believe translates to "I did not go blind"). Currently in the fermenter is a second German-style wheat I will call FUZZirazz after I add three pounds of raspberry puree.

OK, naming things is not my best talent, which is why FUZZ named himself. OTOH, I am good at slogans. "FUZZbräu! Taste our disdain!"

[Obligatory promise to blog more instead of just tweeting.]

Scrapbag 10-in-10 Challenge: Münchner Ausländer

In December, my Local Quilt Guild announced the 2014 challenge would be to create a list of 10 UFOs (UnFinished Objects) numbered 1 through 10, and for each of the first ten months of 2014 they would pick a number and you have until the next month to finish the project. The random number makes it harder to work ahead on something big, or schedule something small for vacation.

Once I applied the "this project has 11951 hand-sewn pieces and was designed to take the rest of my life to complete" filter, I did not have 10 UFOs (although I hope there's a box in the garage because I thought there was a table runner...), so I had to fill in a few months with new things and a charity quilt.

First up for February is Münchner Ausländer, a mutation of The E.B.E. Project. Why should the Münchner Kindl get all the Bier und Radieschen?



I'm not entirely certain how to explain this to a group of ladies who mostly make table runners and baby quilts and wedding presents (and I have to practice pronouncing "Münchner" because it kind of sounds like a hairball).


1 down, 9 to go. I wonder where I left my list.

Sign of Spring/Inappropriate Words

The Robert Indiana exhibition opens to the public tomorrow: that makes tomorrow spring.

I saw it today. Here is my Autoportrait, that I created with an iPad app that accompanies the exhibition:



The app rejected "BEER" as an input into my self-portrait: "Please do not use inappropriate words." And it took me about three tries to figure out that was the word they were objecting to--I was trying to find the hidden dirty word in "LAKEMICHIGAN."

This is an art museum. They have artwork hailing Dionysus, a tapestry created from liquor bottles (one of my inspirations), and even Baby Jesus' weezus on full display, but "beer" is an inappropriate word. (On the bright side--guess they won't be mounting any Tracy Emin exhibitions in my lifetime. Heh.)

They have Sun King on tap in their cafeteria, but "beer" is an inappropriate word.

I'm so amused.

Beer I Am Drinking

Herrmannsdorfer Schweinsbräu Weisse

This was a random purchase at a random Hy-Vee in Davenport: It is impossible to pass by a beer with a photo of a pig wearing pearls on the label and not pick it up. The words "Bavarian Hefeweizen" ensured it came home with me. It was a darker color than I expected, but very tasty with hints of carmel not found in most hefeweizens I can buy in the U.S. I enjoyed it, and at the end of the glass wished for a second. Alas, I only bought one bottle.

I have decided beer is the best way to learn German geography, so I looked up the brewer; Glonn is not too far from Freising. There is a Käserei und Handgemachte Würste. ♪♫These are a few of my fav-or-ite things...♪♫

...and after six or seven years of drinking wheat beers, I finally wondered how they are able to claim they comply with the Reinheitsgebot, since wheat is not barley, hops, or water. The answer: Bavaria had their own beer purity laws that included wheat when they joined the German Empire in 1871, and were allowed to keep them until 1918, when the law for the whole country was modified. In 1987, German beer laws were changed again to allow the importation of Bud Light. It's a sick, sad world.

Beer and Cat

Not my cat...and I was going to say "not my beer" but I've swilled this one at baseball games.

 Don't judge me!

Beer I Am Drinking

Weihenstephaner Kristallweissbier

Hard to find German beers in Hendricks County for some reason, but the liquor shop on the corner carries a couple, notably Weihenstephaner. The clerks always tell me that's a really good choice, and I always tell them I've been to Freising.



I see on their website they offer an English-language tour. I will begin nagging Freund to take me, if I ever get to leave the country again.

Beer I Am Drinking Today

Backpocket Pennywhistle

Freund really liked this one, a very traditional Weizen.  Picked it up at a Hy-Vee on the way home from my last trip to Iowa.  I wouldn't go to Iowa just to get it, but if you have to go to Iowa, you can mitigate the trip with this beer.

Yuengling Lager
Went to Nashville for New Years and grabbed a case on the way home because it's unobtainable in Indiana.  Other beers consumed in Nashville:  Yazoo, Sweetwater, Turtle Anarchy, and the ubiquitous Blue Moon.