Beer Making is Fun.

Dan turned the big 3-0 this weekend and to celebrate, we left town! We headed to Chattanooga for a family weekend, but had an alterior motive...beer making. We had heard of a place called Chattanooga-U-Brew. Basically the concept is a build a bear for adults. Dan's sister, Melanie, offered to keep our kids so we could give it a try.

Thats Lookout Mt. in the reflection.

This place was very hard to find! We circled around in a old neighborhood in the St. Elmo district for a few minutes before spotting the door on the back basement of a warehouse. I was pretty sure we were going to need to know a secret knock to get in. Once inside, we met Greg, the owner (a granola kind of guy who had apparently been drinking since the sun came up and never set his glass down while we were there) who talked us through the process and set us up with a copper kettle and a hand scribbled recipe. Greg started this enterprise after finding the equipment for sale in Atlanta. He worked several years for Dog Fish Breweries and now makes canoes for a living (which were piled up next to the beer supplies).

Yes, it might be a meth lab, too.

Dan chose a Hefeweizin to brew up.

We had hands on with everystep, including measuring out the wheat, weighing it, cracking it. Duncan was our "guide". He rents a corner of the basement where he is co-owner of Moccasin Bend Brewery, an upstart brewery that is not yet big enough to be considered a micro brewery, but is already having success selling in serveral resturants around Chattanooga. We later at lunch at one the pizza parlors and tasted his Pumpkin Seed Ale-an orignal recipe of his. He was incredibly knowledgeable about everything, and we learned a ton.

Watching out for boil overs.

Hops! The smell was overwhelming.

Last step before fermentation is pitching the yeast.

So in a few weeks, Dan will return to can, label, and box up his brew. The name is still up the air...think of a good one and win a 6 pack! We will end up with about 13 gallons of beer-around 20 6 packs, I think. That'll keep him busy for awhile and might make us some new friends.