For Christmas Lauren gave me my first brewing kit. Now I have always wanted to get involved in making my own beer but never got around to it. This was the kick in the pants I needed to get going on making beer at home. We even had the idea that we could make some for the wedding. I think I will have to experiment a little with it before I pass it along to guests however. We read the directions and began boiling and brewing. The kits are available in Latham, N.Y at a place called Hammersmith Home Brew Supplies. You can also visit them on line @ http://www.hammersmithhomebrew.com/

Counter Prep

The instructions are simple for the first few stages. The kit I have came with a very outdated book with illustrations from right around 1910. The cover was from 1970 so at least it had been updated a little. The Book,”The Complete Joy of Home Brewing”, is an easy read.  Some of the items in the kit have been updated compared to the illustrations, however it all pulls together.

Keep in mind however, that you don’t really want to walk away from anything while you are boiling and or brewing. For example you don’t want to walk away to the living room to catch up on “How I Met Your Mother” while you are boiling the wort just after adding the last ingredient, trust me. Get your 3 1/2 gallons boiling and start to steep. Lauren and I ended up with a sweet deal on a stockpot from Macy’s, yes Macy’s, for $14. Now you ask, how did you get it for $14? Well, I had a gift certificate from work for $25. You add that with the sale price, originally $99 on sale for $39 and you end up with $14. It’s a really nice buy even at $39.

The directions say to take 1 1/2 gallons of water and bring it to a boil. In the bucket you will be adding the wort to you will need to fill with fresh cold water 3 1/2 gallons making a total of 5 gallons of beer. Now I am new to this but if you factor the boil off from the pot you are not left with 1 1/2 gallons of wort. Keeping this in mind I tried to keep a lid on to reduce any of the steam escaping out. All said and done I totaled 4 1/2 gallons in the fermenting container.

As I mentioned before until you are sure that your boil is safe to walk away from don’t leave. After adding the last ingredient the cream puff marshmallow man started to emerge from our stockpot. He was determined to erupt with arms and anger raised but I quickly turned off the heat to avoid certain catastrophic depression. The home brew ingredients are almost $40 a pop and this one was a gift. Failure was not an option

All said and done the wort made it to the bucket and all was safe and sound. It needs to sit, for this particular brew, a week before we can bottle. I will update with taste details, bottling procedures and anything worthy of notation in about a month.

UPDATE:

New flavors to add to the bunch as well as bottling the Stout.

Cherry Wheat Hefeweizen and A Porter. I started the Cherry Wheat Hefeweizen first because Lauren had picked it out and My stout will be ready in just a couple of weeks. I guess I was thinking that we needed to balance the two out. The Porter is next but cleaning the bottles and getting ready for the Stout comes first.

If you have a microwave above your brew pot it works well to hold some of the ingredients

UPDATE: 01/27

Just cracked open the Oatmeal Stout. Now again this was from  Hammersmith Home Brew Supplies in Latham, NY. It was an amazing stout. At first light and smooth in taste finishing as a stout should. A full bodied after taste that makes you wanting more. I only brought 6 of them with me from the batch and kicked myself in the ass for not bringing more. I obviously shared it with Lauren first and then offered it to my brother and Aja. They enjoyed it hopefully as much as Lauren and I did. Now that I have proven to myself that I can actually pull this off I am now realizing, as I am sure most do after brewing beer for the first time, that I have to start brewing like a mad man to keep up with our demand. More details to follow but I strongly suggest the stout as it stacked up against many that I have had.

UPDATE: 03/06

Brewed a honey lager and will be bottling it tonight. I let this batch sit for almost 3 weeks as my specific gravity measures have been a little light. I want to make sure that, although most say it doesn’t do much more for the brew, it is finished fermenting and I get the most out of the beer.

I tried the Guinness clone from Hammersmith and it has its pro’s and con’s. The upside is that it is still home made and still great tasting. The downside is that after playing mini golf in the local library with some friends ( don’t worry, its an official thing ) we went to Carney’s Tavern which is an Irish pub just down the road from the local library. I ordered a Guinness and it was awful. The normal slight taste of Guinness especially in a can is intensified and make the first one go down hard. The second got better and by the 10th I was glad that I was just a mile from home and I wasn’t driving. Just kidding, it was more like 3. Once the metallic taste subsided the Guinness started to taste better but not in comparison to the clone. I may have to try another restaurant or pub to know for sure though.

Lauren and I both belong to the gym and lets face it, we have not been going as often as required. I can list all the reasons as to why we haven’t but as you can guess, what ever your reasons despite medical are our reasons as well. We wanted to get in shape for the wedding. We were thinking that if we could fit into our cloths from high school or at least the size we once were we could look back and say that we were a mighty fine couple .   We signed up for a My Fitness Pall account to help show us how much more we need to go. If you don’t log in and record your intake and exercise it sends you message basically letting you know that you haven’t done anything and need to get your ass in gear. Hopefully as we travel down the road to being in better shape we can update with pictures. We can skip the ones for now, although Lauren looks pretty damn fine, and just have a status counter.

*these are stomachs not boobs

This past weekend was Lauren’s birthday. It also marked our 2nd anniversary of knowing each other face to face. I say that because we actually met online through Match.com. I had joined because it really was a great way to read about a person and then get to meet them. We ended up writing for just about a month and quickly became addicted to writing to each other on a daily basis. We actually first met each other at a bar in downtown Albany. It was called the Lark Tavern, and it seemed like a great place to meet since we had both been to it and felt comfortable meeting there. Unfortunately the bar had been taken by fire shortly after but it has always remained in our hearts. Most everyone who eats, breaths and sleeps around or near Albany knows The Lark Tavern. A couple of years back it became Tess’ Lark Tavern.

Tess

After the fire Tess along with her employees headed down the road to Mc Geary’s and where she was able to employ most everyone .

Mc Geary

We met for the first time on November 5th, 2009. It was the night before Lauren’s birthday and technically our first date was when she was 24. I got there at least an hour ahead of time to make sure the beer being served was refreshing enough for our first date. In fact, I made sure a couple of them were. I waited at a table towards the entrance nervously gulping away. I later told her that I had done so, and that was one of the reasons that I was doing most of the talking.

She had finally arrived. I wish I could say that my eyes were on here the whole time but just after she came through the door I checked my phone for the time. I know it’s completely compulsive but being on time tells a lot about a person. I am sure she gets it from her father who is always on time in fact mostly early to everything. I stood up, and she went right in for the hug skipping the formal hand shake. I’ll never forget it. We grabbed a drink and went to the back where we sat down and got comfortable. She was hungry and I was already full but we decided to order from the menu. We both agreed on sweet potato fries. To this day we still by sweet potato’s for dinners at home.

UPDATE 1/24/12: Lauren and I have revisited “The Lark Tavern”

We met up at the Lark to go over some details on our wedding photography with Mike Wren. I got there first as I did on our first date and the place was very different. Very different meaning if I were to be placed in the Lark without knowing I was there I would not recognize one thing about it. The “new” Lark Tavern is just that, new. Nothing about it is the same. The rear room, where I spent most of my time with the bands, is bigger but the same. The phone booth is gone, the stage is gone and the ceiling is tin?

Tin Ceiling

4 speakers hang from the ceiling broadcasting the sound from the TV’s in the back. The seating is set up as 4 to a table with a bigger round table in the corner where the phone booth and waitress station used to be.

Where The Phone Booth Was

Back in the main part of the bar the bathrooms have been moved over to the left at the end of the bar as you walk in and admittedly are much better than the old ones which had no charm what so ever. There is also a small stage at the end of the bar for music with a piano and small set up. I see this as being used for a small jazz ensemble. 

Small Stage at the End

The tavern is well lit with a peculiar neon sign above the bar. It is a vintage appearing and draws your attention as you walk in. Over all the place is nice. If I were new to Albany I would like the new Lark. I had a lot of memories here and I would encourage future patrons to take the place with a grain of salt. The charm of the old is gone and filled with the very different charm of the new. My old memories of the place aside I somehow by the end of my time there enjoyed the place. We mostly had it to ourselves because we had all met up early in the evening. In times of past the Lark would have been a little more filed with people sharing stories and conversation of how our days at were were. The one thing that will never be replenished will be Tess walking around and acknowledging you as she walked by. If it was a conversation with here or a smile as she passed she would always be there.

For me to go back one major thing will have to be changed. The menu is not the same, as expected. I don’t expect the menu to be the exact same as the old one because it is the new owners putting their spin on everything. There is a new larger kitchen but the menu seems to be a little smaller. Smaller by one item by my math. There are no more sweet potato fries on the menu.

END UPDATE.

We began talking about everything as if nothing had been written back and forth between either of us. It was as though we were covering all the stories we talked about in emails but with greater detail and more passion. In fact, as I said before, I was talking about all these things and for a while Lauren was just smiling and watching. She was accepting of my long sentences and topic switching at every sip of beer. I have to admit the beer was good.

Shortly after I realized that it wasn’t my turn to talk anymore. The sweet potato fries came and it was time for me to settle down a little and ease in to a more comfortable manor. I did so by apologizing for being the chatterbox and giving room for her to talk a little. It was so much fun and I could slowly see that my surroundings were beginning to challenge me as two overly underdressed women were circling the room feeding putrid tasting shots to tables around us. They smelled good so maybe putrid isn’t the word but I definitely wasn’t drunk enough to even try them. I could see Lauren watching to see if my eyes trailed the two women as they emptied their trays. Truthfully I am a little repulsed by the overly underdressed approach to serving alcohol so she really had nothing to worry about. She quickly found this out by my reaction to their offerings of their sugary alcohol in tiny glasses. Don’t get me wrong, they were good looking but for a first date I made sure to choose a place that didn’t have a pole in the center of it.

As we continued the evening I made sure to again pay attention to the time. Not because I was watching to se how close it was getting to my bed time but because it was Lauren’s birthday at midnight and I wanted to make sure we were able to celebrate it together even if it was just a simple “Happy Birthday” The night carried on and we continued to talk about everything under the sun. I got to wish her a happy birthday and asked her about her plans to celebrate it. She went from 24 to 25 right before my eyes.

We both agreed that the night was getting late and that we both should get back home. It was a Thursday and we both had to get up the next day. We ended up talking for another 20 min outside in the parking lot behind her car. It was freezing but somehow we both didn’t feel the cold. Well one of us didn’t feel the cold. Lauren had on a dress that was not warm looking what so ever. We hugged and both moved on with our night with our smiling faces. It was a first date that we would not forget.

We slowly started to become addicted to spending time with each other. It was a frustrating feeling I must admit. It can quickly consume you very easily. The days don’t go by quickly enough, the weekends go by too fast and your peek minutes never start early enough. You definitely have to up your minutes on your phone.

One thing Lauren and I like to do is be outdoors. We like to fill our time with a hike or a paddle in our kayaks on any lake we can find. Our fist hike was in Rotterdam a The Plotter Kill Preserve.

Plotter Kill

We had both never been to this spot so we decided to take a new adventure together. I packed up my camelbak, my camera and a bottle of special occasion. The bottle of special occasion was unbeknownst to Lauren and surprisingly survived the hike. I say that because no more than 30 minutes into the hike my camera slipped from my shoulder and tumbled down the mountain into the stream at the base of the waterfall.

Now Lauren says it was straight out of an episode of MacGyver. I have to agree since I went down a 100-foot embankment in what seemed like seconds. I think the Fonz directed MacGyver, maybe it was his alter ego. Instead of a cool slick guy who got all the ladies maybe he wanted to be an adventurer. Anyway, as I said it was a mater of moments before I was at the foot of the waterfall, splashing into the water to try and salvage what was left of my camera. My first thought was to get the camera out of the bag and remove the battery. If I could get the battery out I may be able to hinder a little bit of the electrical current slowly frying it from the inside. I didn’t know until days later that the camera was totally destroyed. After charging the battery and trying to power it back up I soon realized that it was a lost cause. I wanted to try and make sure that all the electrical components were dry before trying anything but nonetheless, the camera wasn’t salvageable. The upside to the travesty was that its last photo, the last light shown into its lens down the pipeline of electrical parts was of a waterfall.

The Last Photo Take By The Camera

I think that this was my first thought as I hiked back up the mountain. This beautiful waterfall had shined its light through the camera one last time. It was a nice send off in a way. I wasn’t really mad, more at rest. I guess in comparison leaving it on the roof of your car and driving off as it explodes on the road only to be quickly run over by a large truck. Something like that for you to see in your rearview as you pull away would be worse I think. Anything like that would surely be worse than its current brush with death. I new that I still had a chance of saving it. Lauren soon made it down the embankment to where I was. She looked at me and asked if it was ok. I had said that I wasn’t sure, and that we could only hope for the best. We were soon passionately enjoying our first kiss. Later on, in fact a couple of days after our engagement, Lauren told me that she knew she was going to marry me. Surly a scary thought back then but now with a reflection back on that moment it’s very heart warming.

More To Come…