Sunday, November 22, 2009

So I almost forgot...

Now that I have a blog, I can tell everyone all the cool things that I've done. So today, my friend Tom and I went to a famous Paris cooking supply store called Dehillerin's. They mostly cater to the restaurant chef crowd, but often get visits from serious cooking enthusiasts and American tourists who are looking for expensive kitchen stuff. Actually, their prices are not that bad.

So, as many of you know, the newest hobby I picked while in Paris was brewing my own beer. I had to pick something up after selling my garage and moving to France and automotive work in the apartment doesn't mix well. So anyway, I have brewed about four, five-gallon batches of beer now, all from kits that use dry or liquid malt extract. I have wanted to branch out a little bit and they next logical step for this is all-grain brewing. For those of you unfamiliar with the hobby, this means starting with malted barley, yeast, water and hops and making your own beer. No longer will I have to pour extract out of a can or a bag, but start with cracked malted barley. Seems more natural, right?

Typically, all-grain brewing requires lots of extra equipment, converted coolers and other large containers to convert the grain from dry malted barley to that sweet starter for beer we call wort. Not having the space for all this equipment, I looked for an alternative. The forum I follow, Homebrewtalk, had a post by a guy for a method of all-grain brewing on the stovetop.

I have not tried this yet myself, but from his pictures, it seems to work fine. So, back to Delhillerins. When I first started brewing, I picked up a 17-liter stock pot to cook my wort. I needed something larger for the stovetop all-grain method. Deathbrewer (honest, that is his screen name) suggested a 6+ gallon pot plus a 5+ gallon pot. My 17-liter pot fit the bill for the smaller pot, but I needed something bigger. So today, I picked up a nice, 36-liter stock pot from Delhillerins. That works out to 9.5 gallons, so I have plenty of space to grow. : )

I'll let you know how it works. I picked up some mesh bags while in London last week and now all I need is some malt. Now that I have the "equipment," I've started looking at all-grain recipes and getting my order ready to get some grain shipped in. I'll let you know how it goes!

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