Like a modern day Noah, but crafty, I have been saving two of every beer I’ve made.

Not including the coffee beer I just made, there have been 12 in all, and my intent is to drink them before my coffee beer is gone and my sparkling ale (which I am making later) is ready to bottle.

The brews I’ve made so far are:

1. Nut Brown Ale
2. Espresso Stout
3. Amber Ale
4. Wheat Beer
5. Coffee Beer
6. Amber Bitter
7. Amber Bock
8. Porter
9. Espresso Stout (w/ Wichita Coffee)
10. American Ale
11. Amber Wheat
12. English Bitter
13. Coffee Beer (w/ Wichita Coffee)

(Disclaimer: That was BEER mom 18 months ago when she was still pregnant.)

I am looking at kegs and additional brew pots to make the process a little smoother. If you have suggestions or homebrew recipes your spouse likes, let me know.

On a side note, I recently picked up a few additional homebrew related domain names I hope to do something with soon. These include:

• OpenSourceBeer.com
• HandcraftedBeer.com
• Homebrews.org
• CiderBeer.com
• EspressoStout.com
• DraftCider.com
• EnglishBitter.com

and the others we already owned:

• BeerCompany.org
• WichitaBrewing.com

The homebrew store closest to us appears to be going out of business, or at least shrinking their stock each time I visit, so I might make one of them into a local homebrew store/website since there isn’t one anywhere nearby.  If you have ideas for them, those will be appreciated as well.

24 bottles have been given away so far and the response is pretty much the same as all the other times… it’s amazing.

This weekend BEER mom and I brewed up another one of our award winning concoctions – chili. The exact recipe we use is top secret, mainly because it wins at chili cook-offs, but here is a list of ingredients it includes:

• Black Beans
• Kidney Beans
• Diced Tomatoes
• Stewed Tomatoes
• Tomato Paste
• Chili Seasoning
• Ground Beef
• Corned Beef
• Yellow Onions
• Green Peppers
• Red Peppers
• Fresh Garlic
• Fresh Cilantro
• Mushrooms
• Jack Daniels
• Jalapeños
• Celery

The end result looks something like this:

Next month BEER mom and I are going to brew our own style of American Ale.

I think the coffee beer is absolutely amazing and would like to share it with people who truly appreciate both coffee and beer, however I can’t find any. Some of the responses I’ve received so far include:

• I can’t really taste any coffee, but taste the alcohol.
• It was damn yummy.
• It was good, I’ve had it before. (Confused with my Nut Brown Ale)
• Whew that coffee is strong. I can’t finish this. It’s going to keep me up for days.
• It’s good, but I don’t want a whole one.
• I don’t drink coffee, but it was pretty good. I could smell the coffee.

I am going to feel real bad if I end up drinking it all myself. Let me know on twitter if and when you want any so I can finally arrange that beer tasting party I’ve been talking about the past few weeks.

Due to the lack of positive feedback I am probably going to make something light next time I brew beer.

Laura (BEER mom to those of you who are new to the site) was taking a nap most of the time, but capped the first few bottles and then really helped by feeding the baby while I filled the rest. (Feeding him is my job on weekends but we were in a hurry to get to the Riverfest.)

We ended up with just under three cases and extremely dark beer with which to fill the bottles. This time the beer was a very dark brown color (near black) but rightly so since it was made with 1/4 of the volume being coffee.

As usual, it is back in the basement for another 5 or 6 days. Then I will begin moving it 12-18 bottles at a time to the fridge for conditioning and drinking. I decided the bottles of wheat beer that tasted best were those that sat at 70°F for the extra week rather than those that were moved immediately to the fridge.

Kaden is also doing well. The picture above is him deep in thought about whatever pimps think about. Bitches I suppose.

I also received my bottle caps and a new thermometer today, so other than the sugar and the beer being not quite ready, everything is good to go.

People have asked if I ever thought about putting labels on my beer, which currently I do not plan on doing, but I am looking into how much it would cost to have my own BEER dad or Beercompany bottle caps made.

I’ll be back this weekend with pictures from bottling, and hopefully whatever information I find on having custom caps made. The ones I have been using are what they call “overrun caps” because they are custom caps that go over the quantity ordered and are then sold in bulk at a discount.

These I got today are for a well known brand.

Similar to what I discovered with making beer, if you enjoy coffee – roasting your own just makes sense. It tastes better than anything you could ever buy, is inexpensive, and saves a ton of money in the long run.

I love coffee just as much as I do beer, so prior to roasting my own I bought whole bean coffee to grind myself. I found this was still cheaper than buying ground coffee and it allowed me to brew what ever style of coffee I desired (espresso, drip, press, etc).

Buying it whole bean cost $10 – 12 per pound and typically last me about a month. By roasting my own I am able to buy different varieties of beans from around the world and have them shipped for still less than $5 / pound.

If stored properly, green coffee can last a long time, so not only can I store it and create my own blends of coffee, I am able to choose how dark or light it is too. With whole bean or preground coffee I had to drink the same thing for at least a month before getting anything else.

Brewing beer is still number one in my book, so I don’t plan on becoming COFFEE dad anytime soon (although the website is available). I just figured my coffee endeavors were worth mentioning since you will probably hear about them again when I make my next batch of coffee beer.

Making homemade cream soda is very easy and doesn’t require a lot of time or ingredients, but if you are making a large enough batch it helps if you have brewing equipment.

We researched recipes and found you can easily make homemade cream soda using things you already have in your kitchen, but since my beer usually makes 6 gallons, we decided to buy ingredients so we could make plenty of our own.

When I was picking up the ingredients for my Amber Ale last weekend we also purchased cream soda extract and cherry flavoring. We needed to use my fermenter for both my beer and BEER mom’s cream soda, so she got to wait until I was done before she could have at it.

The recipe we used called for dissolving 8 cups of sugar in warm water, so we put 1 gallon of water on the stove and added sugar when it began boiling. At the same time I was sterilizing all the bottles and she was activating the champagne yeast in a cup of warm water.

Depending on the style and type of cream soda you go for, yeast is not an absolute necessity, but it’s hard to yield a perfectly carbonated beverage without it. We picked up this yeast at our local home brew store for $0.53. Once the process is complete you won’t be able to see or taste it.

Sugar quickly caramelizes into rock candy, so once it was dissolved I moved our brew pot from the stove to our sink where cold water and ice were waiting to cool it off. Then, once the temperature dropped to about 85°F we added the cream soda extract (at this point you would add root beer extract if you were making root beer instead) and the cherry flavoring.

We temporarily moved the mixture to the fermenter and filled it with cool water to the 4 gallon mark. At this point the mixture was around 8o°F and was ready for the yeast to be added. Once the yeast was fully dissolved we moved it into plastic bottles using the siphon hose and bottling wand from my beer kit.

Now, similar to making beer, the bottles get to sit and condition at room temperature for 4 -5 days. Once the carbonation occurs the bottles will firm and we will move them to the refridgerator for another week before they are ready.

Our Beer Company™ Amber Ale and Homemade Cherry CREAM soda will be ready just in time for our upcoming baby showers.

Unless it is my own brand!

BEER mom and I went to Olive Garden the other day and had a giftcard so we ordered drinks (yes, her’s was non-alcoholic because of the baby and all). I knew I wouldn’t like the local selection, and didn’t want a Guiness since my coffee beer is nearly the same thing, so I opted for a nice Italian brew.

It was the worst beer I have ever had! It was very light and had no color to it. It was real fizzy too, more like a tonic water than beer. Lesson learned: there’s no beer like home(brew).