I am expanding my gardening hobby into another area...home brewing. Those who know me have come to realize that beer and gardening go hand in hand in my backyard. I like to keep a cold beer close by while sitting and weeding. I do weeding as a method to relax and unwind. It is not a job, but therapy. Beer is self-medication in my self-therapy sessions.
The next logical step for me in my quest to learn new things and become a bit more self-reliant is making beer. My daughters bought me the starter kit as well as a couple of brewing options to get going. I finally sat down and spent some time on Northern Brewer which has lots of tutorials. My kit was purchased here, so this was the first logical step in my learning process. I decided that I needed to purchase a hygrometer to do this right. I was in the neighborhood of the Purple Foot Store so I stopped there to get a hygrometer for beer making. I have picked up items for hard cider and such from this smaller store in the past. You would be amazed at how much hobby can fit in a small space.
The next step was acquiring enough bottles that could be recapped for home brewing purposes. You have to love social media for how quickly you can get the word out and find something odd that you need. I finally tackled the task of cleaning all these bottles and removing the labels. In the end, I have enough to bottle two batches of brew...almost. I was fortunate to have the old dibble boards that have been collecting dust in the potting shed rafters for over three decades, at least. They ended up pairing with old bulb crates beautifully to create a drying rack for dozens of bottles. Now that I have this step done, I will allow myself to open the boxes and start the home brewing process. Stay tuned.
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