Is Aaron a brewmaster?

Last night Aaron transferred a batch and brewed a batch of beer and didn't ask for (or didn't want) my help once. Well except to find the cap to something that he couldn't find because I had hidden it. Aaron transferred AutumnAmberII to secondary - we are brewing this one again because we really liked it and because we drank all of it before we could give any away. My family had some of it while we were in South Carolina for Thanksgiving, but even there, home of the Fulchaitis brewery, I think Aaron drank most of the Autumn Amber!

Only Dad has tasted our Holiday Brew because again we really like it, we want to let some of it age more because aging beer is supposed to enhance the flavors even more, he stopped by, and I cannot be taking beer to school to give to my teacher friends! Aaron seems to have the brewing process down because our homebrew is clear and foams nicely (can you comfortably type "has good head" and not laugh?).The Holiday Brew is a darker beer and has great flavor, but not the cinnamon spice flavor we expected. Perhaps a Holiday Brew 2 is on our future as well.

Aaron brewed a cream ale last night, but this kit did not come with crushed grains. When you order the kits, Midwest asks whether you want crushed or uncrushed because it has to do with timing. If it will be a while before your brew, then uncrushed are better and you crush them yourself. When I placed our last order I was unsure of when these kits would get brewed so I ordered one crushed and the other uncrushed.

Aaron went to town with all sorts of banging in the kitchen, but did not feel the grains were crushed enough when the steeped grains produced no color (it should have looked like tea). More crushing and banging. For the second go round Aaron used a hammer and the basement floor and I snuck a photo of him from the top of the steps.

In addition to all the brewing that happened last night, Aaron made a Tuscan beef stew that turned out delicious and looked just like the photo in the book! How often does that happen?


I think there is more cooking in the works for today and soon we will try our hand at making our own ginger ale.