Your House Smells Like...? With Misc Pics!

So, the SWMBO came home tonight, walked up stairs, looked at me and said; "Your house smells like the brewery!" (referring the the Alaskan Brewery she said)

Anyway, some pictures from the past few weeks:

My Blueberry Mead Labels - Bottled on the 27th of Oct:








Bock from a kit - this stuff was good (and real easy to make).



Bread made with Crystal 40 - those are individual baby loafs that I always make with the normal sized loafs as we are too impatient to wait for the big ones to cool.



65 bottles of Abby Weis that I brewed on th 3rd of October and bottled tonight (the reason for the comment above).

Sorachi Ace.

Fvcking cats!

Loooks yuummy

Classy labels. And please share the bread recipe.

We never made it to Alaska Brewing when we took our cruise a few years ago. But we did knock back a bunch of their ambers on the trip.

Nice!!! I'm so happy my SWMBO loves the smell of beer brewing. Last night I was doing a super hoppy brew, and she was MAN THAT SMELLS AWESOME!

The Labels look good dude! Almost look drawn with color pencils.

JetSmooth said:

And please share the bread recipe.

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Well, I really don't have an exact recipe - I usually guesstimate everything. But, here is an estimate. I put approximately three cups wheat in my grinder and grind it. There was about 1-1/2 cups Crystal 40. Two Tablespoons of olive oil and honey. 1 tsp salt. Yeast, water and an egg. The bread felt dry, but was not. I think it was the grain giving it a different feel.

I did this again last Sunday and put the Crystal 40 through the food processor. I eliminated the egg, and added some wheat germ, ground flax seed, and barley flour. Way better bread.

Thanks for the comments on the labels. My daughter did them for me.

Nice. My wife is starting to bake her own bread with fresh flour she's milling in our new blender. You're using dry Crystal 40, right? Not spent? I've been looking for a recipe we can use to blend out hobbies.

JetSmooth said:

You're using dry Crystal 40, right? Not spent?

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No, its spent. After I brew I let the grain drain as much as possible. I then put it into freezer bags and freeze it. Some will be for bread, and maybe some for next summer when I am getting a few chickens.

Crystal 40 was a first attempt. I now have the grains saved from a Belgian Strong Dark - Should make for a flavorful bread.

It is great your wife is making bread. So much better than store bought

If anyone is interested in some of the ingredients in W*nd*r Bread, and why I have made my own for the past 30 years:

Whole wheat flour, water, wheat gluten, high fructose corn syrup, contains 2% of less of: soybean oil, salt, molasses, yeast, mono and diglycerides, exthoxylated mono and diglycerides, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium iodate, calcium dioxide), datem, calcium sulfate, vinegar, yeast nutrient (ammonium sulfate), extracts of malted barley and corn, dicalcium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, calcium propionate (to retain freshness).

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So, now I am on a bit of a rant. From my blog that I posted this summer:

Mmmmm. Nothing like lots of artificial yum-yums in your food. Don’t get me wrong. I grew up eating and absolutely love Wonder Bread, especially with peanut butter, but seriously, do we really need ingredients in our bread that we have to get a degree in chemistry to understand? I am sure, because the scientists say so, that these ingredients have no negative side effects on humans, but neither, according to the same scientists, did Thalidomide. Well, for a while at least.

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Ahhh, cool. I had some grain in the freezer from a previous batch, but never had a plan for it, so it got tossed. Now that she's baking breads (freshly-milled, whole wheat, banana bread FTW!), and we're getting a chest freezer soon (ordered a side of beef!!! OMG!), I should be able to save some up. So you just toss it in whole and uncrushed? Or do you whizz it up in the blender/processor to break it up like the wheat?

I was thinking I could get a food dehydrator and dry the grain out or put it in my Big Green Egg on a low heat with a neutral charcoal to minimize smoke flavor and she could grind it up and use as flour again.

The first time I put the grain in whole - I think it gave the bread a dry feel. The last time I put it in a food processor and ground it up a bit - seemed to smooth the bread out a bit with less hulls/husks or whatever you call them. I was thinking of using my dehydrator, and maybe in the future I will. A few months ago I tried drying 2 pounds of wet grain in a convection oven at 180 degrees. Took hours and I don't think it was worth it. It would be interesting to grind it, like you suggest, so I guess I will have to dry it somehow.

Side of beef!:rockin: I want one!

Well, my wife has tried sprouting wheat and then drying in the oven at 180. I think tha ttook three hours or so. It smelled great once milled. It was like wheat malt, I guess. It did take a long time, which is why I was thinking dehydrator or the grill.

I tried sprouting and then "drying" wheat once. It was a complete disaster because the wheat was not dry enough. I still have nightmares of the gummy-goo that I produced in my grinder! Sometimes, ya just need to be smarter than the wheat. :fro:

I dig the labels, nice job!