Nut Brown Ale

As the snow begins to fall my mind turns to thoughts of sitting around the kitchen table with friends and family sipping a little something to take away the chill. We’re going to have a house full this Christmas so I thought I’d better top off a keg with something refreshing. Since I’m pressed for time I decided to go with a Brewer’s Best kit. I started my homebrewing with these kits and they are good and a good way to get started. The kit contains all the basic ingredients, you need only supply the equipment and bottles. I highly recommend BB for those thinking of brewing their own beer.

This was a little different experience in beer making because I was making it at 9:00 AM this morning. Now, before you jump to conclusions, I was making beer and drinking coffee not the other way around although that would have been nice. It was your typical Catholic homeschool family. The boys were at the kitchen table doing school work, mom was making rosaries, and dad was brewing beer. Remember this post when designing my holy card for canonization!

Anyway, this batch of beer should keep us well supplied for this fun winter visit with 10 children 6 and under and 8 adults. In addition to this beer I have a keg nearly full of the Autumn Red Ale I’ve been saving for the occasion and a case of Mead. If any of those run out I will pull out my Maker’s Mark Ambassadors card and get to work. Happy Advent and Merry Christmas to ya’ll!

After steeping the grains I bring the pot to a rolling boil.

Then add the liquid malt extract….

….and the dry malt extract. (YES, that is 10:18 AM making the house smell like a little bit of Heaven all day long) After this its the hops, let it boil for 45 mins, add more hops, let boil for 15 mins, cool it down, add enough water for 5 gallons of brew and add yeast (if the temp is correct of course!) I’ll post pictures of the finished product.