"I Like Beer...

...it makes me a jolly good fellow."

That song still makes me laugh. So does "Beer is Good" by Psychostick.

For Christmas, I received a home brewing kit. After a couple of weeks of waiting for additional equipment and ingredients to arrive (why do kits always seem to be lacking an item or two, like a strainer?), I brewed my first home-made beer. It is a nut brown ale -- yeah, I also had to get some chestnuts and roast them for this concoction. Finding chestnuts was harder than I expected, despite their reference in a famous Christmas song.

Anyway, the brewing took about four hours from start to finish. Then the beer ferments for two weeks. Then I had to bottle it, which was a bit trickier than I expected. After bottling, it has to sit for another two weeks while the newly added sugar (in the form of honey mixed with a little water) carbonates the brew in the bottles.

Now all the required time has nearly passed, and tomorrow I am ready to sample. Wondering if it will be delicious, or will be sipped once and immediately dumped down the sink...