46 Bottles of Beer

A nice snowy and cold Sunday - perfect for bottling our first batch of homebrew. Steve started the process almost 2 1/2 weeks ago, with the help of our friend and super-brewmaster Rick. It involved a lot of measuring, boiling, and cooling. Then, the beer went through 2 stages of fermentation - 1 week in a bucket, 1 week in a big glass jug. Today, we finally siphoned the beer from the jug into individual bottles and capped them. Now we have to wait about 3 or 4 more weeks while it ferments and carbonates in the bottles. Here's Steve mixing the brew with a solution of priming sugar prior to bottling. The priming sugar reacts with the yeast in the beer and creates carbonation.

I thought the whole process was pretty cool - I can't wait to taste the final product! We're already planning our next batch.

In other news, this week was super busy with school. I got really scared at the beginning of the week because I felt like I was already falling behind in some of my classes. I seriously underestimated how busy this semester would be. In the back of my mind, I know I'm doing just fine - I'm just not used to this type of learning yet. I've already decided that it's harder than what I'm used to, which I'm glad. I need the challenge to keep me motivated. I have tests on my program material every week and I'm happy to say that I did well on the first round. I will be glad when this semester is over, though, so I regain some free time :)

I did still manage to stick to my workout schedule this week, though. I went to the gym Monday through Thursday and did my Chick-Flick Friday ride for an hour. I swam for about a half hour on Thursday and enjoyed every minute of it - I've missed swimming. I almost bagged on the Friday ride, though, since the chick flick I rented didn't work in our DVD player. I just watched Shrek again and that got me through it. We really need to invest in some more DVDs - Shrek, Shrek II, and What About Bob don't give you much to choose from when you want to watch a movie.

Anyway, it's back to the grind for awhile. I need to get some reading done before I go yoga. Here is a picture of our wonderful cat, helping me study on Friday morning. Have a great week!