I have pretty much decided that I need a new hobby. After all, who can be satisfied with photography, hiking, traveling, MINI Cooper worship and Playstation alone? Exactly! What a boring lifestyle I’ve been leading! So, a couple months ago, Julie and I somehow ended up buying a brewing kit. Actually, we were sold a brewing kit in a moment when neither of us was entirely sober. Nevermind, we allowed our gut to make the exciting decision for us. Brewing would be our kitchen’s new purpose!

Fortunately for Julie, it hasn’t quite been like that. All one needs is a few hours on a Saturday or Sunday in the kitchen to do the actual brewing and the rest of the fermentation and conditioning can happen tucked away out of sight in a closet or bathroom.

We’ve been working our way through the first batch – a concoction which I don’t believe came out exactly as planned. Our original instructions were a bit hazy and, as such, we’ve got a fairly sweet, fairly uncarbonated, light and brown brew which isn’t bad, it’s just not the thick porter we were going for. If we’d been shooting for a flat brown ale, we would have hit the mark dead on.

In doing loads of reading and online research, I think I’ve pretty much figured out where I went wrong, and with past mistakes in mind, I set out to make a second batch over the weekend. This time I used a recipe and purchased all the ingredients separately (as opposed to the kit we had last time) from our local home brew shop (a place full of, perhaps, the most knowledgeable stoners I’ve ever met). The recipe I pulled was a Black Butte Porter clone. (If you’ve never tried the Deschutes black gold, go out and grab a six pack – you won’t be let down.) I have no idea how it’ll work out, but early indications suggest I have the right color and sugar content to end up with something in the neighborhood.

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