Attack of Giganta Red!

Months ago, Missie made an appointment for us to make beer at the Brew Kettle in Strongsville. The waiting list is something like 6 months long, so she mentioned it, I put it on my calendar and more-or-less forgot about it until the day came.

Step 1 is to measure out your grains and ingredients, carefully supervised by a member of the staff. The grain room was pretty warm the day we brewed and we both had a bit of sweat going by the end.

Step 2 involves creating the wort that will become your beer (or ale or stout, whatever you choose) at the big brass kettle. Again, you are supervised by staff, and everything on your instruction sheet is pretty well timed out for you. While the brew is boiling, you can much on snacks from the restaurant and drink from the bar.

Step 3 takes place after your wort is created -- you remove your ingredient bags and transfer your wort to the container in which it will brew.

This first of two sessions take a couple of hours. At the end, you make an appointment to come back and bottle. Staff tends the wort while it is fermenting.

We bottled, as described on the label, on July 8. In the interim, I designed and e-mailed our label in advance of bottling and they were printed and waiting for us. Bottling is pretty easy: give the bottle a 5-second shot of CO2, fill to about half-way up the neck and cap. I filled and Missie capped. We drank "overflow" while we bottled and the beer tasted great -- fresh and just the right balance of flavors.

We were guaranteed 36 bottles and produced 42, even with all our tasting. So now, we both have plenty of beer for the rest of our summer. We already made appointments for two more sessions next year.

Giganta. Good.