Counterfeit Gods

A good friend of mine recently started attending Praxis Church in Phoenix. Upon her suggestion, I began listening to their sermons online. The current series is called Counterfeit Gods. So far their pastor Justin has discussed false idols such as sex, love, money, family, power and self. It's been very convicting and impactful for me. Check it out here: Praxis Church Sermons

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Projects Galore...

I must apologize for my lack of blogging lately. But I promise, the wait will be worth it! We've been completing a number of house projects, all of which I'll share with you very soon. Until then, I'll leave you with my dreams for our den. Barely finishing one project before we're on to the next :)

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Bottling

Last Sunday was the big day where we “opened our present”. We went to our fermentation bucket which contained the wort that had been patiently waiting for two weeks while the yeast digested the sugar, while increasing the alcohol content. This is a good thing! During this process, carbon dioxide is expelled inside the sealed bucket, and escapes through an air release at the top of the bucket. You know when the beer is ready to bottle when there is a lack of carbon dioxide produced.

When we determined that it was time to bottle, we raised the fermentation bucket onto the countertop, where we would siphon the beer to a bottling bucket which was placed on the ground. This was a tricky process! During the siphoning, the undesirable material of the wort (spent yeast, hops, barley, etc) is filtered out. Without this step, you probably wouldn’t enjoy your beer as much!

We did sample the beer, and it was GREAT! We were quite happy with our sample, although there was an absence of carbonation, as well as a need for priming sugar to add a bit more sweet flavor. All in all, we were excited!

When the beer was in the bottling bucket, we place it on the countertop. The bottling bucket has a spicket located near the bottom of the bucket on the outside, where you can open the spicket and fill the bottles you are using to store your beer. Our bottles were a collection of 12 oz, 22 oz, and even 30 oz bottles. We purchased the 30 oz bottles from Home Goods for about $2.50 each. These bottles are great because they feature the old style swing-top cap, which makes the beer Grolsch easily identifiable.

 

These bottles also help make sure that the caps don’t pop off when carbonation occasionally increases.  It also eliminates the step of having to “cap” each bottle, and allows you to pour out a portion of the beer, yet put the cap back on with an airtight seal.

Our next step depends on our wonderful wives, as they will be creating and printing the labels for our beer, which by the way, is in the process of being named! Any suggestions!?

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Wall Mural

My first big project inside our new house was to bring more interest to our great room. It was a sea of flat color:

I considered painting it a fun color, but I couldn't come up with a color that would complement our furnishings and have the impact I was wanting without being overwhelming. Then I came across an article on wall murals in This Old House magazine that I picked up at Home Depot. Here are the steps to create your own wall mural:

1. Sketch out your design to scale on grid paper. {Download my template here}

2. Snap chalk lines on the wall that match the grid on your sketch. Mine were every 22 inches. Hint: Cover your floors prior to snapping the chalk lines, as the chalk has the potential to be VERY messy!

3. Sketch your design on the wall with sidewalk chalk. Work one block at a time from your pattern.

4. Paint the lines over your chalk sketch using a small round artist's brush.

5. Fill in your design with a second color. Use a roller on the larger areas and a 2-3" angled brush for the smaller areas.

Touch up any spots that need it, and you're finished!

 

We're absolutely thrilled with how our wall mural turned out, it adds a wonderful touch of whimsy and surprise to our great room. It's such a unique focal point and has really set the tone for the rest of our house. For less than $80 and about 15 hours of time, it certainly makes a huge impact!

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Brew Time!

Here's the follow-up to our eventful night of our first attempt at brewing our own beer!

Again, this first batch is a recipe for a beer that is identical to Newcastle Brown Ale. We began by opening up our boxed kit that contained all needed items for brewing this specialty batch. The contents weren’t all that complicated, and they were clearly labeled.

The hardest part of the entire process was getting a glass smooth top range to boil three gallons of water. About 40 minutes later, we were ready to boil in order to get our precious wort!

The wort is basically the beer just before it is ready to be stored while it ferments for two weeks. The entire process of preparing the wort, including boiling, adding the ingredients, and placing the wort into location for fermentation took about three hours.

Not too bad for three guys in the kitchen!

We estimate that after you learn the process, this could be reduced to about an hour and a half.

Once the wort was prepped for fermentation, we placed it in the utility sink in the laundry room, where it will stay for 8-14 days. The completion of fermentation is monitored by an air release at the top of the fermentation bucket. When there aren’t any more bubbles, the beer is ready to be bottled. This process will be our next posting!

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