Homesteading

Home Beer-Brewing

March 15, 2011 · Homesteading

Greetings from The Roost! This week for the “barn hop” link up I’ll be covering home beer-brewing! This is actually my hubby’s domain, so he’ll kinda be taking over for me a bit during this post with all the technical stuff (ladies, if you ever want to surprise your sweetie with an awesome gift that he’ll swoon over, just get him a home beer brewing kit, available online. But be warned: he’ll become addicted and then take over your entire kitchen for a day…) He started with a premixed kit with all of the ingredients but his latest batches have been adaptations of other recipes with ingredients purchased from a local brew shop. In the future, we’d like to grow some of the ingredients ourselves! And now, onto the gory details of brewing. This particular set of photos is from recipe for an american stout.

The mash

1. The Mash: This is where the ground malted barley is steeped in hot water for an hour to extract the fermentable sugars, kind of like a brewing tea.

2. Lautering: the grain is separated from the liquid (called wort). Additional hot water is poured through the grain to extract more of the sugars.

The boil

3. The Boil: The wort is rapidly boiled for 1 hour, and the hops are added along the way. This sterilizes the wort. The heat and hops also cause proteins in the wort to coagulate, which will later help to clarify the beer.

4. The Chill: The wort is chilled quickly to 70 degrees celcius, the perfect temperature for happy yeast and good fermentation of an ale.

fermenting

5. Fermenting: The wort is poured into a 3 gallon glass fermenter along with the yeast. Carbon dioxide will bubble off until the fermentation is done, about 2 weeks. In this process the yeast converts the sugars extracted during the mash into alcohol.

6. Bottling: The beer is then transferred to sterile bottles (we reuse ours each time by sterilizing them ourselves). Additional sugar is added to cause extra fermentation after bottling, which will carbonate the beer once it is capped. The bottles are aged to 2 weeks.

bottling

capping

The finished product

One of our good friends is a graphic designer, and he made these awesome labels for our first ever beer, “Dominicker,” named for the breed of chickens we raise (pictured at right). The name of the mix is “American Dream Stout.” Featured on the bottle is our very own Mr. Rue (he’s famous!)

Have any of you brewed your own beer or grown your own hops? Or do you have any good recipes for original brew mixes? My husband’s next original brew is called “Bourbon Brown Ale” and should be a crowd pleaser at Derby time!

Homesteading at the Roost

February 21, 2011 · Homesteading

our very first egg

Here at Restoring the Roost I haven’t focused as much on our homesteading activities (oh, right… except the chickens, of course…I am kind of obsessed with talking about my chickies).

Even though I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a homesteader, all of the various arts involved in homesteading are very important to me–and I cannot shake my deep longing to become more self-sufficient and connected to the land that God blessed us with. I love gardening and cooking with the fruits of my labor, my husband brews his own beer, and we raise backyard chickens. In the future we hope to grow a lot more of our own food than we currently do, and perhaps have a small vineyard. I also love to fix up my roost. Does that make me a homesteader, too? Perhaps.

Mr. Rue thinks he’s hot stuff

My journey of restoring the roost, wherever that may be, includes not just my physical home and its historic fabric, but also the health of our homestead, spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

Below are some goals for healthy living I’ve made for this year similar to Amy’s “Food Journey” over at Homestead Revival. These will result in BIG but needed lifestyle changes for our family:

Goal # 1- pray more and be more diligent in daily Bible study.

Goal # 2- eliminate processed foods

Goal # 3- cut way back on consumption of sugar, especially anything with refined sugars

Goal # 4- switch to buying organic produce or local farmer’s market produce as much as possible, particularly for the “dirty dozen”

Goal # 5- switch to antibiotic and hormone-free meats if possible or available

Goal # 6- become more organized at home, devoting a set time for chores and housekeeping each day (instead of letting it all pile up for the weekend)

Goal # 7- try raw goat’s milk (if available) and consider eventually keeping goats. If I can’t stomach it, then at least switch to hormone-free organic milk

Goal # 8- be able to bake my own bread with local grown/milled whole grains

Goal # 9- switch to all-natural or green cleaning products (we already use green products for some things, but need some alternatives to bleach and regular detergents)

Goal # 10- put extra effort into making our vegetable garden more productive

Quite a list, huh? I am planning to gradually make these changes so that it’s not so overwhelming all at once. So, any thoughts or advice? I’d love to hear stories about your own homesteading goals!