Wedding Planning - the funner bits

So most of the big stuff for the wedding was really planned before we left for summer vacation. There are still some big items that need taking care of - but two more are getting knocked off the list tomorrow - three if I really try.

In the days following the earthquake, I had nothing better to do than play on the internet. (Why oh why did I not hike more?!?) I came upon a few DIY websites that I have really enjoyed poking around. And list making began. Wedding magazines do nothing for me - DIY wedding blogs - hell yes!

My official wedding to do list is about 6 pages in a google-doc (but that's 6 pages of details, links to ideas and such). The best part about this list is almost everything on it is optional. It's all stuff that I would like to do for some reason or another - but none of it is necessary for my happiness. I mistakenly thought I was going to have all this time to get things done, but really statistics takes way too much time and this schedule is more difficult than we all thought. However I have managed to squeeze in a few projects.

We haven't ordered the invitations because there are still some undecided details, but we took advantage of a sale and a coupon to order the RSVP cards in the pattern that Aaron liked. We could have ordered matching envelopes - but it was like $60 more and I couldn't stand for it. So instead I read up on some things on the web, bought some crafting supplies, and I embossed them - TWICE (in two places). And they look awesome!

Then I decided to personalize some napkins (also because of the unreal prices for ordering them and because I think it is a nice colorful touch). Two statistics lectures later - 250 are done. Nora has informed me that I probably need more so I will polish those off during another lecture after resupplying.

Mom and I embossed other napkins one night for the table settings. I taught my mom something crafty (!) because she had never embossed before. This project was the most time consuming so far because there was a larger margin for error and we really wanted them to look good.

Tonight I tried making a personalized cake topper. Aaron and I have gone back and forth about wanting one. I didn't want one from a store and we had one we liked on Etsy, but secretly I was hoping this project would be awesome. I found great directions on a DIY website and pictorial inspiration on Etsy (for toppers over $100 eek!).

First, you sketch in pencil (which you can erase over and over) and then you paint (which is do or die!). The hardest part was mixing paint to approximate Aaron's hair color especially since the only brown I have is in the form of a paint marker. The second hardest part was drawing the hair on Aaron's head. Mine was surprisingly easy.

Aaron does look like a zombie. As soon as he finds me some sandpaper I am going to try to sand off those baby blues and replace them with a shade of darker or brighter blue. Aaron also says we need mouths because his goatee looks like a brown mouth, but I need to practice that thin of a line. And if I can find a really fine white or silver sharpie I will outline the details of his suit and maybe some details of my dress. But so far I like them and so does he! And now I just want to play with them - check them out in front of the painting :)

Leafers and Hiking

Fall is in full swing here in Virginia and the leaves are beautiful. I love fall and the colors the leaves make and I want to hike as much as possible - plus I love hiking and it does seem like we've had a lot of rain. Aaron has a sleeping-in problem when there is no desperarate need to get up so sometimes we do not plan ahead- that and we are trying to hike all the trails in Shenandoah and we are running out of ones in our favorite length range - 5-9 miles. There are lots more for us that are shorter and lots more that are longer and WAY longer. I guess we could do some of them as out and backs, but we prefer loops.

Last weekend we actually got an early start despite spending twenty minutes at home with the books and maps trying to pick a hike, and stopping to take some green sign photos. The entrance to Shenandoah was packed with cars, but we got waved to the shortest line and then breezed through with our National Parks pass. Turns out our hike left from an extremely popular overlook. Bad because it was jammed with cars, but really not that bad because mostly these were 'Muricans who wanted to stop, take a photo, and then get back in their cars and leave. After finally getting a parking spot, we grabbed our bags, and headed for the trail. From a hundred people to none. Solitude, sunlight, and colorful leaves. :)

in a canopy of yellow

I can't even tell you the name of it - I'll have to ask Aaron. It was a pretty hike and more interesting because of the leaf change. We only passed four people maybe. We met up with an older lady who it turns out had taken a wrong turn (which is surprisingly easy to do at the post where she made her mistake) so she ended up joining us because she had to backtrack.

My Trail Grandmother in Action

She is an expert stream crosser and I am not. She coached me over a difficult stream crossing and was in general a nice lady to talk to. Plus I hope when I am her age that I am still hitting the trails and able to keep up with someone who hikes like I do now. We only lost her on the uphills, but that's typical. Aaron and I hike the same speed up and downhill - we just have a steady pace. And we don't stop much so most of the time if we are hiking a popular trail, people pass us going down and we pass them going up and then usually stay ahead of them because we just don't stop that often.

Please excuse how awful I look and enjoy the view - it's not always this clear.

We're supposed to hike today - something short because we both have a lot of school work to do - so I guess I should go get Aaron up and start looking at the map. Happy Autumn :)

Beer School #2

**First off let me just say that this blog is about a week late. Holiday Magic is in secondary, one week away from bottling and Autumn Amber is bottled and two weeks away from drinking. 

Secondary fermentation is boring. It's finally in a clear container so you can see what it is doing and it is not doing anything! Not even bubbling much. Really you just put it that container to clean out all the yeast that died during primary (and settled to the bottom) and letting it age. After letting the beer sit in a clear plastic carboy in the basement during secondary fermentation for a week, it's time to bottle it. Finally - I get to help more, though Aaron still did most of the work. We transfer it to a bottling bucket because it has a spout, but I guess we could bottle it from the clear carboy. There's probably a reason not to - but I can't think of it.

First Aaron had to get all the labels off the bottles which he did in the claw foot bathtub with a lot of Oxyclean and hot water. Apparently Dos Equis labels are the hardest to remove (according to the boards on the websites), but that is the beer of choice on sale that my Dad has been drinking to supply us with bottles. We are not really able to supply our own bottles because I do not drink enough and Aaron doesn't drink a beer that comes with a pop off cap. :/ Are we even going to be able to drink all the beer we are brewing? Nope. We are going to give it away at cheap prices - and drink as much as we can.

Next the bottles had to go in the dishwasher to be sanitized. Aaron proclaimed we had the best dishwasher for this (becuase of the settings), until we realized that no bottles would go on the top rack. We rearranged and rearranged until we were able to get at least 50 bottles on the bottom rack - and it was a tight squeeze (see photo).

Aaron transferred the beer from the plastic carboy to the bottling bucket (because it has a spout) and we got to work. That's right - we. Bottling is truly a two person job. Even though Aaron tries to do as much as possible without assistance (see photo).

Aaron filled the bottles and I capped them. We got into a rhythm and it went quickly. I only destroyed one cap and no bottles were broken and no beer was spilled. We got a little less than 45 bottles out of this brew. We should get more the next time because this time we had a small boil over and in the first transfer we didn't get as much because of poor suction.

Beer School

Aaron and I are homebrewing! We got introduced to it through Karrie & James who provided us with an ultracheap kit via Craigslist. We bought our first kit an Autumn Amber Ale from Midwest Supplies soon after returning from summer vacation and alas it sat on top of the fridge for far too long. I cannot tell you how many weekends passed where we had loose plans to get started that never came to fruition. Part of it was waiting for things we needed. Dad hooked us up with a propane burner and big aluminum pot (via Thomas Magee) and Karrie & James sent us the Homebrewing DVD from the supply company. This DVD is hysterical - the dude pretty much made it himself in his own kitchen. Very practical, pretty simple, totally amusing. 

getting things set up

We finally got started two weekends ago. I am not sure why exactly we finally got started, but YAY for starting! The first step to making a good homebrew is to crack one open and start drinking. We still have a few from K&J so we cracked two open and got started. Getting started included washing a very dirty bucket and the other supplies and putting the propane burner together. The propane burner had never been used (even though it doubles as a turkey deep frier) and Aaron had to step in and use his man muscles to help because the pieces weren't threaded correctly because of the paint coating.

Eventually things came together and brewing got started on the porch. First you heat the water to 155 and steep the grains. I'll be completely honest, I cannot recount every step to homebrewing... 1 because I just don't have it in my brain to remember the steps in a recipe and must recheck the recipe one hundred million times... and 2 Aaron has taken to it and has put himself in charge. I just help when he lets me. Honestly he does not need me until it's time to bottle and that's not for at least another week. Anyway, I help when I can.

The grains get steeped in a raggedy sock looking thing that is resuseable. You can see it in the picture. Basically you heat it, steep the grains, add the malt extract which is thick like molasses and tastes gross, then boil it with the hops steeping in the sock and then maybe add some more flavor aroma hops at the end.

Then you have to cool it from boiling to 80*. We have a wort chiller which is a copper tube system that uses hose water to transfer heat and cool the wort (wort is the beer mix before it is beer). I personally do not like this part because it is a huge waste of water so I am trying to figure out how to do something about this.

Another disaster with round one was that the wort chiller would not hook up to our sink and did we have a garden hose? I thought we did so I went digging in the ivy in the side yard, found it, dug it out, and rescued it. Water ran through it despite the kinks, but the end was squashed. I quickly texted the landlords to see if we could use their hose. This may seem like an odd-I-need-it-now-request, but our landlords live right behind us, I knew they were home, and they homebrew too! We were able to use their hose, but even better, they had a clamp-on end that basically fixed the problem.

After cooling it, it goes into a fermentation bucket and the yeast is added. Then you get to watch it make CO2 by watching the bubbles in the airlock. Then you wait. And wait.

After one week it gets transferred into a clear plastic carboy and put in the basement. It's not bubbling anymore so I think it's just aging. In one week we get to bottle the Autumn Amber Ale (AAA) and then it has to age some more. I think maybe by Thanksgiving we can start drinking. Of course we can drink it earlier than that, but it won't be as good. From reading reviews, pretty much the more you wait, the better off you are. Unfortunately... a whole lot of hurry up and wait!
So... we realized we needed caps, a bottle filler, more cleaner, and maybe another kit. It is difficult for us to actually pick a kit (at least I think it is) because Aaron and I like very different beers. When we go to our favorite pub I get a Brown Stout and Aaron gets a Natty Light. Not very similar. Aaron also drinks more beer more often than me, so we decided to get the Budweiser clone kit... and then I saw the holiday brews were prominently featured for brewing in time for the holidays and I wanted the Happy Holiday Brew (Henceforth called Holiday Magic).

Brew #2 small boilover

Aaron agreed and I called the nice people at Midwest. I love these people! I call them tell them I needed a bottle filler - a simple one and they tell me about them and make a recommendation. I have yet to start my online account because they pick up on the first or second ring and know what they are talking about if you have a question! The first time I called I asked the guy like a million questions. Anyway I placed the order and it was here on Saturday after we returned from our 10 mile hike so the plan for Sunday became Brew #2 Holiday Magic!

adding malt extract and stirring

Aaron took it over. He says brewing is a 1 and 1/4 person job. He doesn't really need my help. This one went more smoothly even though we had another small boil-over. But this one is much more active.

When I got home today I noticed that there was beer on top of the bucket lid and the airlock was full of beer. I texted James a photo and he told me it was not an issue, just needed to clean the airlock or possibly rig a blow off tube. Once Aaron got home, rigging began. We used my embossing gun to heat the plastic tube to make it expand and fit. Then the tube had a kink so I rigged it with the bucket handle and a fork! I rule! Aaron ran the tube into a 2 liter of water and now while watching the Lions beat the Bears we can hear it go BLUH BLUH BLUH happily fermenting away.

So this weekend we are going to bottle the AAA, transfer the Holiday Magic, and who knows... maybe brew the Bud. Sometime, forever from now, we'll get to drink it!