I am pleased to introduce the newest addition to the BEER dad, Beer Company, and Wichita Brewing Co. line of ales: Wichita Coffee Beer.

I admit, I first got into it Thursday evening but was too busy updating all our sites to post anything then.

This coffee beer is just as dark as my espresso stout (which was made with espresso rather than drip brewed coffee) but is a little lighter in body and doesn’t come with the same after taste.  Those of you who have been following me on twitter probably know all about that by now.  I know many of you are also waiting to try some.

I’m also pleased to announce the first ever bi-monthly BEER dad beer tasting party, and the larger announcement – if economic and market conditions appear suitable (I’m currently doing research) I may consider starting a full blown brewery.  More on all that later.

Our coffee beer is now living in 67 wonderful bottles of caffeinated goodness. We bottled it last night prior to the Riverfest fireworks finale. Once again we followed our usual bottling routine, meaning I sterilized and sanitized everything, primed the bottles, and begin filling them when everything was ready.

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The bubbling in the fermenter is beginning to slow which means it’s almost bottling time. I need to pick up more corn sugar Saturday morning because I ran out, so most likely we will do work Saturday afternoon.

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.

As I said before, there’s not a lot going on around here except us being parents, however I did get to sample several other styles of beer while I was in Chicago all of last week for work.

I flew out of Wichita last Saturday to set up for a trade show and worked at my company’s Chicago office for most of the week, then returned Friday afternoon.

While in Chicago I enjoyed several brews local to the area, and decided when I return I would make another coffee beer since that has been my favorite so far. BEER mom and I began the brewing process this Saturday by roasting a couple pounds of fresh coffee to use in the ale.

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We still have about 20 bottles of wheat beer left, but I plan to start brewing more next weekend. I also forgot to mention that everyone who tried my wheat beer last weekend really enjoyed it. It is definitely something I will make again.

I am still trying to decide what to make for the next brew, but am leaning towards another dark ale such as a porter or a light stout. I will be in Chicago for a week for work beginning tomorrow, so that will give me time to decide.

Kaden got his pictures taken last weekend as well, and as of Tuesday weighs 8 lbs 4 oz. Here is him posing as Kaden Zoolander at Sears.

There are more pictures in the Baby Smith photo album.

Kaden’s due date is tomorrow! We celebrated yesterday by taking him to visit the grandparents and cousins he hadn’t met yet.

My parents have pictures of him and his great-grandparents that I will post in the photo gallery when they decide to e-mail some. He didn’t get pictures with his cousins Isaac or Ethan, but did meet them and got a few poses in with his cute cousin Leora.

Heidi and Bob-O have more pictures on their blog. Kaden also got photos taken today at Sears. We will have those in a few weeks.

Kaden had his one month checkup today even though he won’t actually be a month old until Thursday. He now weighs 6 lbs 12 oz, which is a pretty good gain since he was well under 5 lbs a few days before we left the hospital. He also grew another 1/2 inch since his last appointment, which brings him to a total of 19.5″ long. We already had to retire some of his clothes since he is growing so fast.

BEER mom took a few new pictures today which follow. We are pretty used to parenting now, but are still trying to adjust to not getting any sleep. I can’t speak for her, but I’m pretty convinced it’s worth it.

She hasn’t been able to write or do much recently since she’s been busy with him when I’m at work, there also isn’t a lot going on with the beer since I still have 2 cases of wheat beer. I have been working quite a bit on my karaoke social network and a new project that only a few people know about. More on that and Kaden next time.

Here are the new pictures:

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The wheat beer is done and tastes great. We will be in Overland Park on the 26th, so if you are in the area come try some. Otherwise you are always welcome to stop by our place in Wichita for a sample.

It looks pretty clear compared to the other stuff I’ve brewed, but definitely tastes like wheat beer. I will post pictures next time I have one and remember the camera.

The bubbling sound coming from our fermenter slowed the other day so BEER mom and I bottled it Thursday night once baby went to sleep.

We had a rough first few nights with him, because waking up every 3 hours wasn’t something we were used to. He also didn’t like something Laura ate so we quickly learned about the most useful parenting secret – mylicon drops.

He’s sleeping fine now and had his first doctor’s appointment yesterday. There are more pictures of him after the bottling pictures.

How to bottle beer

I’ve already talked about how easy it is to make beer, and bottling is no different. You typically need 2 1/2 cases of bottles for bottling time (if you are making a 5 gallon brew) ± another 4 – 6 depending on how full you fill them.

The first and most important step when bottling is having everything sanitized and prepared before you begin.

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BEER mom and I had a very busy week since we now have an entire BEER family, but that didn’t stop us from making wheat beer on Saturday.

My whole family actually helped out with this batch because they were in town this weekend visiting Kaden.

Laura and I ran to our local homebrew store before they arrived and picked up the last can of wheat beer extract. The owner said she didn’t expect such a large demand because everyone had been buying stout all winter, but her customers usually switch to wheat beer the first nice week of spring. This is good stuff to know for some of our future ventures (beercompany.org).

Before I get into the brewing details, here are a few more pictures of our 6 day old son, Kaden.

Me holding Kaden

Kaden and his grandma (my mom)

Kaden and his grandpa (my dad)

Kaden and his aunt Stacie (my sister)

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