Brewing Beer

As most of you know, I have started a new hobby...Home Brewing. I started doing this about a year ago. The first three batches I have brewed (Irish Stout (2) and Vienna Lager (1)) were boxed kits from Brewer's Best. Each one seemed to turn out better than the last. After getting Extreme Brewing, by Sam Calagione (founder and owner of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery), I decided it was time to expand my horizons and brew a beer that wasn't from a kit. After some debating, I decided on the Sour Cherry Ale.

So here we go:

First, let's make sure we have the ingredients....

Malt, hops, yeast......

7lbs. of frozen cherries

(can also use 10lbs. of sour red cherries or 2lbs. of dried cherries)

Owen is very interested in what is going on.

Add 2.5 gallons of water to the brewing pot.

The crushed grains are put in the grain bag in order to steep.

6.6lbs. of malt extract is added and then at different time intervals of 65 minute boil, the various hops are added.

Owen wants to bottle the beer now....but not for a few more weeks.

The 7lbs. of cherries are added after the boil is complete.

Owen running away with the lid.

After the yeast is added to the wort, the Sour Cherry Ale begins its primary fermentation.

Once the airlock is bubble free (about 3 weeks from brew date), and the specific gravity is steady, the beer will be ready for bottling.

Stay tuned for how it turns out!

Next up for brewing.....home made Guinness!

Nawlins

I have returned from New Orleans.  We are currently in the midst of a wretched stomach bug that has struck all members of the family, me being the last victim.  I had to call off of work today (which I hate doing!) so anyway, I actually have some time to do a blog post...after trips to the bathroom and scrubbing the carpets from Owen's puke-fest.  Seriously, how do they manage to throw up in the most inconvenient places?
Anyways, enough grossness, let's get on to my trip and I'll try not to dry heave through the food pics...

The whole reason I was going was because my work generously offered to send myself and the two other girls who passed our orthopedic specialist exam.  They had an award ceremony for all the new board-certified specialist.  For those who don't know, I am an orthopedic specialist, but the ceremony covered all specialties-geriatric, pediatric, women's health etc.



Here Mom, my friend got my picture so you can see me get my award ha ha

After the ceremony, it was obviously time to eat.  I neglected to bring my camera for this event, but we got a recommendation to try this place called Mulate's.  The food was so good.  I had blackened mahi mahi with jambalaya and a beer of course.  They had live music and dancing as well, although after traveling and conferencing all day, I didn't have my dancing shoes on.

The next day was mostly filled with attending classes at the conference, which were very good.  We had some shrimp po boys for lunch, and continued on with exploring the city later that night

We around on these trolleys.  It was very convienent.

We stopped for one of these and had some steaks for dinner.

The last day we ended up just exploring the French quarter before we had to get back to the airport.  By the way, it was about 37 degrees while we were there.  So much for Southern weather!
Here's a bunch of pictures...



This was behind a bar on Bourbon St.  It was so random to have this beautiful courtyard behind a bunch of bars and strip clubs.

The balconies were already decorated for Mardi Gras.  I wonder if they're like that all the time?

And we had to stop for beignets at Cafe Du Monde.  So good, but I couldn't finish them.

The city was interesting to see.  We heard some Katrina stories from the locals and it seems like many are still really recovering from it.  But in the words of our wise busboy..."it's only stuff, I'll just get more."
Oh yeah, and the boys were fine without me.

Museum of Play

On Saturday we ventured to the Strong Museum of play in Rochester, NY.  We all have had some major cabin fever and decided a day trip may be a good idea for us all.  We arrived around lunchtime, and of course the second we walked in Owen was chanting "eat eat eat eat..." We gobbled down some grub before we even paid admission for this place!  I swear if this is how this boy is going to keep eating, I am gonna need to pick up a second job!
I digress.  Here's some pics of the fun day we had!

oh yes! an aquarium.  Getting him away from this definitely resulted in a tantrum.
 
Raced some cars

Played the giant xylophones with Daddy

They had a huge Sesame Street display, which he loved.  He and a friend had the same idea with his BFF Elmo.

This was my favorite part...the mini Wegmans.  It was set up just like the grocery store, and the kids got to pick 5 items from the store to purchase.

The kid didn't waste any time filling his cart with bananas of course.  He took all of them from the produce section!

We had to check out after he finally decided on his items (with some help from Mom and Dad.)
He spent a good amount of time baking some cupcakes and bread in the little bakery too.

His final selections were blueberries, bananas, waffles, milk, and egg beaters.  I guess he wanted to make us breakfast.

Of course the boys had to ride the train!

It was a cute little train.

He found a slide too!  This poor boy is missing his playground time.

He tried to hula hoop with these older girls, but instead just walked around with it around his waist.

and he busted some mean moves on the light up floor

The Museum of Play was a great place to visit, especially on a cold winter day.  We plan on returning again soon!