Today I moved up into the big leagues of brewing, or at least, I purchased the equipment I need to move up into the big leagues of brewing.  After dropping what felt like a metric assload of money to get said equipment (most of which I’ll earn back from the sale of various things I don’t need anymore), I am now either in the possession of or have order confirmation of two 10-gallon Rubbermaid coolers, equipment to turn them into a mash/lauter tun and a hot liquor tank, and a 32 quart stainless steel stockpot that was purchased at a restaurant supply shop for less than what Sur La Table wanted for a generic 12-quart stockpot.  Restaurant supply shops rock, I must say.  I walked up to the counter with the thing in my hands and the woman said “I know what that’s for.”  In this town, she must get a lot of people looking for 32 quart stainless steel stockpots at decent prices.  No sirree, we don’t have any homebrewers in this town.

So, what does this mean?  It means cheaper brews, for one thing.  I need a lot of grain, but buying that amount of grain is actually cheaper than buying malt extract, which I’ve been using up until now.  So yes, I’d save a lot of money if I weren’t brewing, but since I’ll be brewing for years to come, this will save me money in the long run, even if it does triple the amount of time it takes me on brew day.  I’ll also have a metric assload of spent grain leftover after each brew, so does anyone have any good recipes for spent brewing grain?  I’d love to make a bunch of Gardenburgers and freeze ‘em, but I need to find a recipe to make good use of them.  I’ve heard good things about spent grain bread, too, which Hanne has been excited for me to make once I move into brewing with grain.

I’m feeling especially good this Thursday, partially because of my big purchase today, partially because I got a fair amount accomplished at work today.  That was probably thanks to the second half of the second bottle of beer I didn’t drink last night, forgetting it was in the fridge until right before I went to bed, when I wasn’t about to down 8-10 oz. of 8.1% Belgian-style ale.  I tend to sleep better and thus feel better when I have less beer, not to mention the inevitable bloat I feel the next day because I never drink enough water.  Well, I rarely have a problem with two bottles of beer…but it doesn’t help.

But, back to work.  I have several projects coming to fruition in the comings month or two, and it will be good to get them out of the way.  I cleared two long-standing projects off my to-do list in the last week, so I feel pretty good about how things are going.  Review time is coming up, so I’m curious to see how well other people think I’m doing.  I have to write a description of what I do and how I spend my day, so I think that will be an interesting exercise, even if I have a month to accomplish it.  I plan on being totally honest and not inflating my job responsibilities, though, which includes looking at news, checking my email, etc.  IT  is somewhat of a feast of famine job, and if you’re doing your job right you don’t necessarily have to do your job.  I mean, there’s akways something to be done, but it’s not like my days at Papa Murphy’s where the expression was “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.”

Hanne and I have effectively IKEAized parts of our apartment, and so she has her new dresser assembled and in place, and our new entertainment center (which let’s face it, no matter where it’s from is still better than what I had before) is in place and hiding cables and whatnot.  Things are starting to look very nice, and once we grab a couch and a bed frame, things will look very nice.  Hanne’s paycheck coming in this summer is going to make a world of difference in what we can afford to buy.  I don’t have a grand plan to fill our apartment, but we definitely need A) a bed frame, B) a couch, and C) some curtains.  Anything else is just gravy…like my new brewing system.  That’s been in the works for some time and has mostly been held back by finances and space, but now that I have both at my disposal, I’m looking forward to doing some real brewing.

Or to take it one step farther, as a friend of mine put it today, “I’m looking forward to when you open your brewery.”  Maybe one day.  Let’s see how those first few all grain batches go for me, and then I’ll consider a professional career.

This weekend is shaping up to be pretty awesome.  Nothing especially interesting is going down, but Friday night I’m earning $70 from the sale of the golf bag I won as a raffle prize as well as whatever shenanagins Hanne and I get into, Saturday I’m getting my long-overdue oil change done and then watching Hanne in the Dragonboat races, and then that evening we’re going to do my (our, really) very first Beef Cubelet meal.  Just a pound of meat, but we’re also doing onion rings and vegetable tempura, so we plan on making good use of the deep fryer while it’s running.  Sunday night after her second Dragonboat race, we might even stop by Hopworks Urban Brewery for her team captain’s birthday.  So, let’s review why my weekend is going to be good: money, food, drinks, oil change, food, and more beer.  That’s got to violate at least a couple of the seven deadly sins somehow.

Nah, can’t be.  Beer is proof that God loves me and wants me to be happy.