Brewing with Mad Fox

When Beer Geek and I first started dating, he was a home brewer.  He made some really good brews back in the day.  As life got busier, home brewing fell by the wayside and eventually we sold all of his equipment to make room for all the kid related stuff that came into our lives.  Lately, though, *I’ve* been thinking that I want to start brewing.   And I figured where better to learn than from one of the best?

So, I called up Bill Madden and Charlie Buettner at Mad Fox Brewing Company and asked if I could help them brew a batch.  Not only did they say yes, Charlie let me know when they were brewing their next batch of Wee Heavy (my favorite beer).

I had to miss the very beginning of the brew process because I had to get my kids to school, but Charlie was kind enough to share some pictures with me.  I’m not going to go in depth into the process for two reasons 1) this is a running blog LOL and 2) I’m still learning and there are lots of great resources that can give you more info than I can.

Getting the yeast ready

Closeup of the yeast

Putting the grain into the mill

Grain in the mill

Milled grain and water in mash tun

Bubbly goodness in the mash tun

The kettle full of wort

Putting the hops into the kettle

Charlie keeping the madly boiling wort under control

Wort moving to the fermenter

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Remember all that grain that went into the mash tun to make the yummy beer?  Well, it’s not going to get itself out of there.

Spent grain

Pulling out the spent grain (that stuff is damn heavy!)

Note that this brew set up was designed for Bill Madden.  He’s at least 6′ tall.  I’m 5’3″. LOL

A huge thank you to Bill and Charlie for letting me spend the day brewing.  I had an absolute blast!  (If you are in the area, “my” Wee Heavy is currently on cask at Mad Fox and I can’t say enough good things about the beer or the food there.)