That's "Fucking Ball ov Sunshine," a secret project Lizz came up with and that we brewed some time ago, photographed as we were testing a sample to see what the specific gravity was at. We know it'll be ready for bottling soon, so we wanted to see if it was time. S.G. was at 1.011 - close, but we'd rather see 1.008 or so. Flavor was pretty much everything we'd hoped for - save maybe one characteristic that didn't come through quite as much. If you're wondering what it is - too bad! There are several secret ingredients, so until it's bottled and several people have tasted it, we're not telling. It's not a hefe or a wit, though.

In other brewing news, we'll be moving to all-grain brewing very soon. For those that don't brew, "all grain" refers to brewing with cracked grains, instead of pre-prepared malt and grain extracts. Most homebrewers start out using extracts - and there's nothing wrong with extract brewed beer. Plenty of people have even won competitions with extract beers. We're lucky that our local homebrew shop does enough business that their extract selection is generally very fresh, and we also have been cooks for a long time, so any scorching of the extract that some newbie brewers end up doing is avoided. So our beers have been (in our opinion) pretty good, especially given how new we are.

But, the control that all-grain brewing can give you over your finished product is extremely attractive. Plus, you get to use cool-sounding terms like "vorlauf" and "sparge". ;)

So, after probably way too much research, we have a plan formulated to build our mash tun. This is an insulated container that you steep ("mash") the grains in at certain temperatures, in order to convert the starch into fermentable sugars. Then, of course, you have to have a way to get out only the sugary solution ("wort") and not any grain bits. We'll be basing ours off a very standard, well-accepted design, basically following this blog post - http://rivercrewbrewingcompany.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/building-my-10-gallon-mash-tun-cooler/. Cost will be maybe $60 or so; not bad, and well worth it for the control it'll give us.

The next gadget we'll be constructing is referred to as a "heat stick." This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a stick that generates (a ton of) heat. The main component is a water heater heating coil - up to a 2,000 watt coil. We might have to step down to a 1,500 watt one; not sure what our electrical system will handle. Two of these suckers will take a full 5 gallons of water from out of the tap temp to rolling boil in about 37 minutes. It's cheaper than propane, faster, and doesn't require brewing outdoors. Cost is pretty low - about $30 to $40 per heat stick.

We have our next two beers planned - one is an experiment of mine (another secret!) and the other will be a Slovenian Blonde with blackberry added in secondary fermentation. This was her creation, and it should be a fantastic fruit beer. Both of these are extract-based; we already have the ingredients. Then, it'll be on to all-grain. The first all-grain project (IMO) needs to be something that really emphasizes malt characteristics, since that's what the process gives you the fine control over. I'm thinking an 80 shilling Scottish. Who knows.

We'll also be visiting a bunch more of our state's craft breweries over Memorial Day weekend. I've got the Friday before off as well, so we'll have 4 days to wander Indiana and tour craft breweries, tobacco shops, and whatever else we find. Expect a long post about that... if either of us can recall what happened. ;)