In case you have forgotten, BEERdad is a site where I write about two of the three greatest things in life: beer and parenting.

Some of you seemed a little shocked when I wrote about the baby’s room, which is why I suggest you actually read the about page of the blogs you read. In case you are still not paying attention: this site is about beer and parenting, and this entry is about our baby.

For those of you who didn’t know, my wife and I are having our first child in April, and unless the doctors and sonogram turn out to be wrong, the baby will be a boy.

According to my wife’s blog about the baby, he is 26 weeks along today and should now be able to hear all the stupid stuff we say and do. Recently we’ve been listening to a lot of techno and 60s music on XM so he will probably turn out to be pretty musical like his dad.

Other than making beer, family members have been giving us a lot of baby clothes, and we have been trying to finish his room and our basement since we probably won’t get much of a chance to do so when he’s here. My other site says he will be here in 92 days.

My espresso stout is ready, and has the bitter kick you can only get from a shot of pure espresso. The ale is almost entirely black except for the head which appears in a thick, light-beige foam. It also doesn’t seem to have any particular smell, but defiantly carries a taste every connoisseur of coffee or beer would long for.

I gave in to my urges Tuesday night and tried my first bottle. Then another Wednesday, and a third last night. At first I thought the conditioning wasn’t finished, or maybe something went wrong because my first sip began very bitter. Then I recognized that bitter flavor as the taste of espresso.

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Tonight I moved half the coffee beer to the fridge, which means one more week until it’s ready.

The rest of it is in the garage. Chances are I will probably give in and try one in a few days though.

Once we finished bottling our coffee beer, BEERmom and I got to start piecing together the furniture we picked out for the baby’s room. We put the crib together Sunday and finished the little guy’s changing table and dresser last night. The set has a cherry finish to match the rocking chair we purchased a few weeks ago.

Crib and Dresser

Changing Table and Rocker

We still have 4 months before the room will get any use so we plan to use the time to recolor the walls and do a little decorating. As you know, I am new at the whole parenting (and decorating) thing so any suggestions are welcome.

My coffee beer finished primary fermentation on Sunday so BEERmom and I spent the evening sanitizing and filling bottles. She wasn’t too excited when I bottled my first batch because I was pretty messy, so she decided to help.

Once everything was sanitized we primed each bottle with a teaspoon of corn sugar, then she handed them to me one by one. I filled them and handed them off to her to be capped, and this time I actually had enough bottles, so we didn’t have to get creative.

The batch made 63 bottles, which are now conditioning under our bar until it’s time to move them to the fridge. The recipe says they will be ready after a week, but I plan to wait at least two before seeing how they turned out.

Photos from bottling night below.

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I made my second batch of home brewed beer tonight, which is an espresso stout. I still don’t have a large enough brew pot to make my own wort so I had to use a concentrated Stout by Cooper’s.

The process was basically the same as last time except the directions said to add both the sugar and wort to boiling water prior to topping off the fermenter. I think last time I had to let it cool before adding in the sugar. I also added about 10oz of freshly brewed espresso using a blend of beans from a small roasterie in Kansas City.

BEERmom brought me my second to last bottle of nut brown ale to enjoy while I was adding water and giving everything a good stir. Adding the espresso was my idea, but several coffee beer recipes I read said doing so with a concentrate will still turn out pretty good beer.

The stout now is sitting on our bar downstairs for the next week or so before bottling time. Hopefully I will hear tiny bubbles sometime tomorrow or early Tuesday. More on how it turned out in a few weeks. For now, I’ve added pictures of the previous brew to the other posts. Below are some from tonight.

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When leaving your local home brew store it is probably a good idea to ask for a shopping bag…

Yesterday I stocked up on ingredients for my second brew and had the privilege of walking around Downtown Wichita with a 4lb zip-lock full of a powdery white substance. I received plenty of dirty looks and was probably the only person that knew it was corn sugar.

I thoroughly tested the quality of my beer this week by giving bottles to the connoisseurs in my family, and received feedback such as “wow that’s good” and “holy cow that’s amazing”. Several others said it was the best beer they ever tasted.

I think they were a little worried about what they were about to drink, then surprised. Some of them probably exaggerated a bit too.

One recipient stated it was a lot better than Bud Light (which is understandable since it’s an entirely different style of beer), while another warned a family member who owns a brewery of his impending demise.

Consensus: It was pretty damn good.

I appreciate the compliments on my beer, but thought I would share that for a number of reasons I do not believe there is such thing as a “best beer in the world”.

The most important reason should be apparent to anyone who considers themselves a connoisseur of something. That reason being – if there is such thing as a best ______ in the world then you would only eat/drink/consume that and would not be actually be a connoisseur. Crazy beer nuts.

I think the best thing about all consumable things I love (such as beer or coffee or music) is that there are so many excellent options to choose from that I never really have to try the same thing twice. That’s how I feel about beer as well.

I have 6 bottles left from my first batch of beer, and once I finish them I will probably never make that recipe again (unless of course I forget I already tried it). I am going to start my next batch – an espresso stout – this weekend, so I am researching different recipes.

If you have successfully made coffee beer then I could use some tips, if not then wish me luck. I will be back this weekend with baby details and pictures from my second brew.

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As a new homebrewer I was pretty worried my first batch would turn out bad and convince me never to try again. Luckily though that didn’t happen.

A friend turned me on to a small store in Wichita named What’s Brewin’, which is where I purchased my supplies. My first batch was Munton’s Nut Brown Ale. The ingredients yielded about 5.5 gallons of fermentable goodness, and took about a week for the yeast to do its thing.

I went back to the store the next weekend and purchased a capper and two cases of refurbished brown bottles, and went to work bottling my brew the next night.

For some reason (I think it was the Imperial measurements) I thought my 48 bottles plus 4 I saved would be enough for 5+ gallons of beer. About 3 hours, 52 glass bottles, 2 wine bottles, 1 Juicy Juice container, and 4 water bottles later I learned otherwise.

After another 2 – 2½ weeks of warm and cool storage I was able to try my first sip. Despite ruining a small portion of the batch with plastic bottles, the ale turned out wonderful.

It pours a dark translucent brown with a thick, foamy head. There is a faint nutty aroma, and the taste is amazing. I have always enjoyed trying new premium beers (which is why I never share mine at parties), and would have to say this is among the best I’ve had.

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