In Which We Make Nut Brown Ale

"My two large Piggs, by drinking some Beer grounds taking out of one of my Barrels today, got so amazingly drunk by it that they were not able to stand and appeared like dead things almost... I never saw Piggs so drunk in my life, I slit their ears for them without feeling. "
Diary of a Country Parson Rev. James Woodforde 1778


The above was quoted from the book The Country Kitchen by Jocasta Innes . I just thought it was funny. Today we were making Nut Brown Ale. I've had it on my to do list for ages. I already had the ingredients. I was just lacking in energy , but today , come hell or high water (and there was lots of high water with all this rain ) , I was going to do it even though what I wanted more than anything was to crawl back to bed and sleep for another 4 hours. ANYway, we got it done. It only took about 5 hours from start to finish. That didn't include the scavenger hunt earlier to find where we had stashed all the different materials and ingredients.
Beer making is now becoming a popular hobby but it actually used to be a standard skill in a homemaker's repertoire . This is from the same book quoted earlier...

"During the 19th century beer brewing was a normal part of household routine, a chore housewives undertook along with baking, raising poultry and curing meat for the winter months. They brewed fine ale for special occasions, 'small' or weak beer for harvesters , and strong stouts for expectant and nursing mothers. Indeed, beer was so nourishing that William Cobbett, in 1825 , lists it along with bread and meat as essential to the farm labourer's diet.

I find it rather amusing that they saved the strong stouts for expectant and nursing mothers. People would be rather shocked today. Maybe it kept them mellow. Who knows, but we are all here today and our ancestors lived like this so it couldn't have done that much harm .
This has nothing to do with beer but it was funny with Jesse poking his head around the corner like that. He is standing on the back of the couch .

This is the malted grains steeping. The water is 150 * F and it steeps for about 45 minutes. You are trying to turn the starches in the grain into sugars. It smells really good at this point.

So far we've been getting completely organic beer kits from Seven Bridges Co-op and we've been very happy with the results. You can find them at http://breworganic.com . You can even call and talk to real people if you have a question. Always a nice thing.

Next comes the sparging of the grains where we slowly and tediously pour 170 degree water over the grains to rinse all the goodies out. All the water is collected in the main boiling pot then we add the original steeping water too. This all goes together to make your wort.

Then we bring that whole mixture to a boil , then add the barley malt extract. Skimming foam after we finish.

A good rapid boil.. Then you add your bittering hops .. for this recipe they boil for 40min.

Then we add the aroma hops and Irish Moss (it helps settle out the proteins in the wort) and boil for 20 more minutes .

Mmmmm. it has a very .... earthy smell.. Well, my older sister Violet said it smelled like sweet potatoes. I haven't smelled any sweet potatoes like that , but anyway.

Then you have your brother Buck run over to the 99cents store and get you a bunch of bags of "old" ice..... whatever that is.. I'm not eating it. I just want to make things cold so what do I care if it is freezer burned. Can you really freezer burn ice? I mean.. it is water for cryin' out loud. I know it can take on that "freezer" taste... hmmmm. Anyway, it was very cheap and very cold. Just what I needed because I don't have a wort chiller and I couldn't have hooked it up to the hose today anyway because it was rather wet outside, to say the least.

Then you forget to take pictures of the transfer of the chilled wort from pot to fermentor as well as the adding of the yeast but you can just imagine that okay? Here it is behind the dining room door next to my vinegar barrel full of about 20 gallons of cider in the process of going to vinegar.(that is cheesecloth shoved in the bung hole to keep critters like flies out and let air in ) . I've never done it in a barrel before so we'll see how this turns out. If it is a flop, I'll have a lot of floor cleaner to use. ANYway, the beer gets to ferment for about a week and then we will siphon it off to a glass carboy and ferment it longer until we finally get around to bottling the stuff. But the big part is all done. Yay.

Stormy Skies

We've had a LOT of rain over the past few days . It is still raining, and will continue to rain . But there was a break in between storms yesterday. So we jumped (carefully, with shoes on.. ) out on the roof and took some pictures of the sky which was gorgeous as the sun was setting.

We could see the new moon.

If only those lovely power lines weren't there to spoil the view.

I love those big clouds

I wish I could walk on them. I remember how disillusioned I was when I found out you couldn't actually walk on clouds . The plane flew right through it. It was very hard to swallow. You mean they are just ... air ? And moisture? How very heartbreaking.

The sun was setting . Since the leaves are all off the trees we can now look right in to Downtown Big City . Curses. I didn't realize we were quite that close. Well, when they blow it up we'll be able to see it from our roof.

So beautiful.

The tree is still covered with rain droplets. Like little diamonds or beads.

Looking down on the very wet garden of barrels where we currently have onion sets and lots of parsley growing. Punker Man is doing his best to pull up those onion sets but I hope to come out ahead at the end of the season.

We'll need a boat here pretty soon with all this rain. Oh.. we do have a canoe... over the pool . So we just have to untie it and we'll be set. We've had some thunder which is rather unusual for us but always very exciting. J.B. does not think so . Okay. I'm tired of typing out J.B. and Punker Man , which aren't their real names anyway. So we are going to change their public names again to Frank (Punker Man) and Jesse (J. B.) James since they are named after outlaws anyway.. only not those two. Anyway. Frank and Jesse.. the James brothers. Since they are brothers. Okay.. phew. Glad I got that off my chest. I may occasionally call Frank , "Sugar Babe" because I do call him that (and he comes... amazingly.. not that he answers to Sugar Babe but that fact that he comes at all . ) and Jesse "Stinker" because he is one. Okay, now we got all that cleared up. Later on everyone (yeah.. all those hundreds of readers.. haha) is going to wonder why their names suddenly changed because they won't see this post ... for whatever reason.. Maybe because it has nothing whatsoever to do with dogs. ANYway.. it is raining .. again. And it is bedtime for the James brothers.

Apple Sauce Time

We've finally managed to eat our way through three years of overly enthusiastic apple sauce canning (my fault entirely... I must admit.. they were FREE for cryin' out loud. You have to accept free apples ..... or else.... or else..... well, they get wasted and just dumped in the dumpster. So I rescued them. But then I had more applesauce than any family in their right mind or appetite would consume. But we've finally reached bottom. So, it was time for more. )
First we wash de apples.

Er.. we.. well.... Elly May. Thank you Elly May. I love you to pieces.

Then you whack them all up with a sharp knife. Taking out the bad spots if you are dealing with seconds and rotten apples.. as we were. We meaning both of us this time because I did chop them up. (I don't make her do everything...)

Then you cook them down until they are really soft and then, if you are really really lucky , a friend from out of state just happens to drop by and say hi for a few minutes while they are in town and are kind enough to assemble your food mill thingy you haven't used since you were twelve because you insist on using IT this time instead of your mother's completely dependable and ancient Kitchen Aid sieve thing that is made, sadly , of aluminum. Anyway, she puts it together and saves the day and then disappears again. SO, you spoon, pour all the apple stuff in and Elly May eagerly volunteers to turn the crank so she can continue to build up her butch Cinderella biceps . We run the stuff through twice to get all the good stuff. This food mill leaks just as much as I remember. So we just stuck small bowls under the leaky parts and that seemed to work fine. So there you tempermental food mill!!

May we have some?? I think not.

Then it gets dumped (well ,carefully , you know... ) back into the heavy, precious , blue pot with cinnamon sticks and is cooked down to the desired consistancy. Which just happens to be when we have had enough of this apple cooking down/canning business and want to leave the kitchen and have it be over with already.

The apples were really sweet so there was no need to add sugar. Galas make the best sauce in my opinion... but I haven't had a lot of opportunity to use a zillion different varieties in my kitchen trials. But Galas are better than Fuji or Pink Lady.. but .. we had Fuji and Pink Lady today so.. so that is what we used. We are opportunistic canners .

Aren't they all pretty?

All done. Yay.. no more. This should last a few weeks. It is really good on toast in the morning. And way healthier than apple butter which is mostly sugar anyway. We are indebted to the guys at our farmers market who unload all their culls on us so generously each week.

Cuteness

What are you looking at?

Why they want to sit up there I'll never understand but they do.

At least they get a long.

In other news , we are busy pouring over seed catalogs , dreaming of spring and summer gardens, hoping against hope that it is a better year than last year... especially for tomatoes (and our energy levels and overall health) , trying to decide on varieties , trying to stay within our limited space . All that jazz. We planted onion sets in barrels. Punker Man insists on unplanting onion sets . We poked peas into the ground and scattered arugula seed. That is coming up. Still waiting on those peas. Cover crop is covering most of the growing area. It was planted fairly recently so it is still rather small. We still need a ton more soil up top in those new beds. Maybe a miracle will happen, who knows. But come April there better be a lot more soil up there or we are going to have some serious difficulties. There is a lot of serious composting being done but I'm unsure of whether that will be adequate. I'm going to grow strawberry spinach this year. I've wanted to for years and years because it just looked so weird and cool (berries come off the plant.. of all things!) but I never got to it. But THIS year. ... Yes indeed, I have great plans. If only half of them come to pass I'll be satisfied . I think. Maybe . I hope. We shall see.

On the food front, last night we made the best spaghetti sauce ever. Well, for here anyway. And over home grown spaghetti squash it is oooooh so good.

We have lots on the agenda , not sure if any of it will get accomplished or not, Elly May can only do so much and as long as my health is being so uncooperative , we have to let some things go. But that is okay. It is a season in life. God gives the strength to accomplish what he wants you too. If he doesn't give it, obviously you weren't meant to do it to begin with. Or something like that. Happy New Year.

How to Deal With Post Season Decorations..

So we really enjoyed our gingerbread outhouse centerpiece this year. Then one evening we were celebrating a birthday and had forgotten to light the candles on the table. That is just not excusable .. I mean FIRE people. You need it for special occasions. ANYway, dinner already being over, I lit them anyway, then being the thinking person that I am, that considers all future consequences to ones actions (ha ha and haaa) ... I lit the icicles on the outhouse on fire just to see if they would burn. Golly gee.. they do! With lots of screams and hollers from the more prudent members of the family, I blew it out. Geez people... it isn't like it was going to burn very fast anyway. But ... I had a brilliant idea. In other years we threw gingerbread houses off the roof too see how they smashed (not very impressive actually... then you just have a lot of candy powder to clean up afterwards. ) why not burn this one???? It would be a grand way to end the party. So with much excitement and happy squeals of anticipation , we whisked the singed creation outside to the concrete and brought all the dry pine greenery that had been adorning doorways and stuff. You know, just for a bigger show and all.

Before....

Then, being the Lady of the Flames , I got to start the proceedings.. Elly May documented. :-)

Kind of slow going , not very impressive ..

Ah.. .but pine burns really really well.

The big guns.. though not nearly as fun as matches (it is the smell .... magnesium... mmmmm) the torch got things going much faster.

Ahhh.. a tree has fallen on the privy!!

So we add more because it burns so well.

The roof caved in and melted.. the whole thing kind of melted actually. It was a grand show. I'm sure the neighbors were wondering what on earth was going on . There were delightful sparks flying all over the place (it was moist out from a previous rain.. don't worry.. we also had a hose ready) . Granted a huge bonfire would have been way more fun but we do the best we can under the circumstances.

The aftermath on the concrete.... shh.. don't tell Mom. Anyway, it was a grand send off for a privy.

Gingerbread the Elly May Way...

So.. I've (that is me , Annabelle) been terrible about posting anything lately. Chronic exhaustion has required mandatory resting... though Elly May has been extremely busy. I'm finally getting around to posting some of the things that were done before Christmas. Happy New Year everyone by the way. All two of you. :-)
This is about as cold as it gets here.. frost on the roof ouside my window . It is quite pretty. It has been warmer of late and there has been no frost but we are expecting a lot of rain here really soon in the coming week. Sounds like a deluge. We could really use it but maybe a bit more spread out so the hillsides don't all come washing down.

Oh why do they do this to me??

We switched the antlers to Punker Man and the hat to J.B. Don't they look thrilled? I thought so.

Oh yeah... the project .. and whole reason for this post. This is a special gingerbread house. Can you guess what this part is?

It goes in here..

Ah.. taking shape.

You can't seen the moon cut out but it is there in the door. She even used the extra white frosting for a squat snowman. I think he was melting..

And what is an outhouse without a Sears Roebuck and Co. catalog?? We couldn't get corn cobs that small....

Now ain't that purdy? So much better than an normal house. It got better though. When we were finished with it for the season , it got a grand send off.. but that is another post.

To Rest the Eyes....

After the previous two posts, here is a post with nothing objectionable to anyone. I don't think anyway.

Mr. Precious

I love the sky... and I love clouds.