The Unsinkable Molly Brown's

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be Happy - 

We are now officially BMW's - Beer Making Women!  My next door neighbor and I had our first brew day yesterday.  We decided to use a kit, and used concentrated malts - 5# malt is way easier to deal with then 40 odd pounds of whole grains.  We went with a brown porter, which we plan to name Molly Brown's. The pic to the Left is when it got all bubbly when we add the Malt to make Wort (don't I sound all technical and full of beer knowledge). 

Here is Ale-ina stirring our bubbling cauldron of heaven.  I quoted lines form Macbeth at her until she glared - but she is tolerant of my giddy insanity, and by that time we had consumed more beer than I typically do in any given week, so chances are she did not even notice that I forgot half the words and kept repeating myself. Apparently one of the rules to beer-making is that you must consume to brew. One wonderful, scary thing I discovered is how much I love the smell of hops. I almost didn't want to throw them in the pot, then once I relented, I hovered over the steaming cauldron, trying to give myself a hops facial.  Divine! A negative point? It was freaking HOT outside - this will be much more fun in the winter months, and probably better for the beer, too.
This is Molly Brown's on her way to the primary fermentor. I love that we use a glass carboy, they are just cooler.  We have one of those swirling, bubble air-locks which just look cool and a little steam punk, but we went with the more streamlined, decidedly more boring one, mainly 'cause it works better. Alina committed her Ketel One Vodka to the cause so our air lock is even more pure (MB is a prissy girl). Now we wait for Molly Brown's to grow up, she is bubbling happily away in my craft room, all wrapped in a blanket over the air conditioning vent, growing and maturing into a robust young lady.  We'll check her in a couple of weeks, hopefully she will be ready for the keg by then.  I love that we have the kegerator option - bottling looks like it would be a supreme pain in the batootie. 


In two weeks or so I get to post tasting results.  Wish us luck!