Finally Brewing!

Finally got my act together and brewed some beer! It is a Dark Lager Kit from The Beverage People in Santa Rosa. Everything went pretty well and now it is just a waiting game. There is something so satisfying about making things like beer and bread and mayonnaise from scratch. Things that we usually just buy at the store. Things that we take for granted. We go to the store to buy bread or beer like it is a singular item. But when you make these things you realize that they are a collection of ingredients and time and meticulous actions and stress and mistakes. It means so much more and tastes so much better. The next time you go to the store and buy a loaf of bread you appreciate everything about it. "My, what lovely crust. The airy quality of the bread" or "Oh, this beer has a great fresh hop flavor!" and you read the bottle and it talks of the variety and region of the hops used in the beer. Appreciation is back. Brewing your own beer makes other people's beer more interesting. Alright, I'll stop! Here are some pics of the process.

Steeping the brewers barley

Boiling the malt extract and barley tea. I am also sanitizing the copper wort chiller.

 The spent grains

 My wort chiller chillin. Tap water to ice bath to wort and to the drain. Worked ok, was not as fast as I was hoping... need larger coils I guess. It took about 40 minutes to get it from boiling to 80 degrees...

 Siphoning from the pot to the primary fermenter.

Overall the process is surprisingly easy and only took about 3 hours. It seemed so daunting and I have been putting it off because I was a bit intimidated... but of course there was no need! Should have started brewing sooner!

Random Tidbits

Ride number three today. Good to get out in the sticks again. I met up with two other teachers from school and road with them. Three foreigners riding bikes for fun... Needless to say we were a magnetic sight. Kids were running out from the roadside, yelling from across the river and generally going crazy. I felt like a greater at MallWart, having to say hi to every one I passed.

Went to the air conditioning shop and bought copper to make a wort chiller. No, not for removing strange growths on my body but for cooling my beer after boiling. I am getting close to brewing...

The first quarter is already over here! Time is flying with so much to do.

Our lime tree just exploded with blossoms last week. Can't wait for a G-n-T with home grown limes.

Lost my wedding ring for the second time at the soccer field. This time I was not successful in locating it... I am not superstitious so this is not a bad omen for our marriage or anything. Just kind of a bummer. Now I can say, "I left my ring in Bangladesh."

We are done unpacking our shipment from the states and just need to hang a few more pics on the wall. Nice to have a home again!

The cargo bike is a hit at school. The little kids just go crazy when they see it and start firing off questions that never occurred to me to ask.

Other than that, just living.

Thialand

We just returned from a week in Thialand... It seems so strange to still be teachers and yet now we are able to travel comfortably. We flew from Dhaka to Bangkok and stayed one night in a nice hotel there. The next morning we flew to Krabi and that was when it really started to feel like a vacation. We where greeted at the airport with a killer van and driver who drove us to the coast.

Good thing they don't sell these in the US, because I would go into debt for that!

On the way to the coast I snapped this epicness. This is a scooter with a sidecar, oil drum BBQ and many expandable storage options. The best part? The fish still on the BBQ while doing 35 MPH!

Here is a shot of the boats in the bay

 A shot for the gearheads out there... whomever you are. The boats have these ridiculously long drive shafts with the prop just hanging out there about 10-12 feet off the engine.

The ladies enjoying the 15 minute Boat ride to Railay Bay

 A shot of the Railay Bay in the distance. Unbelievable rock formations.

Here is a shot of the Railay Bay area. Our hotel is the green roof just to the right of the middle of the screen... Bummer!You may notice the ocean on the far side and the ocean on the bottom of the pic. That strip of land is it!

Our little cabin.

Night shot of the next beach down

Night Shot of the rock at our beach.

The ladies in the water.

Lola learned how to snorkle

Our little flower child singing to herself on the beach.

It rained a lot so this was one of our only sunsets

We had one really nice and sunny day on the beach (notice the umbrella just in case it rained again).

 You just can't help photographing these guys, they must get tired of all the attention.

There were some other great sights but I didn't do them justice or I didn't have a camera. I took a total of four pictures in Bangkok, none of which were any good. I failed to document our hotels which were amazing. I need to get better at this photojournalism thing! Overall feelings of Thailand? It felt a lot like Hawaii. The people are friendly, laid back and reserved (unless they see your child and then look out. Lola was grabbed and tickled and cheeks pinched multiple times). I was not impressed with the food in Railay Beach. I was expecting great Thai food but we mostly ate over priced decent Thai food. Most of the menus were over loaded with western and European cuisine which is a bummer. I would still recommend Railay as we had a blast despite the food and the weather and would be interested in seeing more of Thailand.