Homebrew Series: The Barley Crusher

This past week, I brewed my first lager with and for Andy. I documented most of the process and will use this opportunity to introduce much of our fancy equipment. Today I highlight the homemade barley crusher. I merely mentioned to Andy that I wanted to build onee so that I could savee the $120 or so that they retail for online. Within a week he had a pretty goodd working machine. He continued to refine it for a few weeks as we tried it out and I better clarified what we needed it to do. Below are videos of it:

Beer

The old Minnesotan Lutheran in me is wary of writing a post titled "Beer". I will have to outline the evolution of my convictions in a later post. For now, it is hardly necessary to know that I enjoy it--only that I am brewing it!

My good friend Earl invited me to help him make homebrew a few years back and I have joined him on a couple of occassions. A month or so ago he provided help, knowledge, and equipment to enable my own first batch. We got to enjoy the first bottle on Tuesday and it seems to get better every day. My only complaint is that for the cost I might as well have bought it at the store. In fact, if time is money I really got the short end of the stick.

My first batch was created with malt extracts. This is the only way Earl has ever done it. Yearning for more affordable beer I have studied intently the world of all grain brewing. If I grow my own hops, culture my own yeast, and buy malt in bulk, I think that I could be making beer for well under $10 per 5 gallons. Now, don't conclude that I am an alcoholic. I just enjoy good beer a whole lot more than bad beer, and I also love saving money.

If you stick around, I will certainly fill you in on the whole adventure. Thanks for reading.