Brewing Beer

While on vacation I had my first experience brewing beer.  My sister-in-law's boyfriend Aaron does it regularly and has a nice system set up for always having some homebrew in the keg.  I learned a lot about the process.  I won't bore you with a step by step--I'm not sure I could recall everything, anyhow--but here are a few pics.  The high tech setup:

Here is the grain, Aaron uses actual malted barley rather than extract.

Moose is key to the process.

This was the only point in the process where being sanitary is key, up to that point, we used buckets from the shed, cobwebs included, and didn't wash anything.  The long boil assures your beer will be safe, but at this point it is ready to start cooling. 

The glorious result, a Belgian styled dubbel.  It will take a few weeks before it's ready for consumption.  This beer used candied beet sugar, whole flower hops as well as hop extract, and an abbey style strain of yeast.  I'm just sorry I won't be there to drink it.  I did get to try Aaron's pale ale, which he described as "not quite ready" in terms of carbonation.  It was fantastic, easily one of the best I've had.