Making Beer is Easy/Hard

A couple of months ago, we decided to brew beer. This idea took hold because:
1.  We were snowbound due to one of the blizzards, and we thought it would be WAY EASIER to just have beer we made sitting around than to have to rely on getting to the store.
2.  We love beer with Amarillo hops and there are none around where we live.

AMY:  Surely it's not that hard.  They did it in the Middle Ages and everyone was stupid then.
BANDIT:  Yeah.  We must be smarter than Middle Ages plague people.

GIBBY:  I'm not so sure....

Surprisingly, none of us knew the first thing about how to brew beer.  And since we didn't want to read a bunch of boring books, we did what all good Americans do when they need to learn something:  we bought a DVD.  The DVD was confusing and depressing (especially since we learned that you have to wait like 3 weeks to drink the beer you make), so we lost faith.

A short while later, our interest was renewed when we ran out of beer with Amarillo hops.

This time, we bought a book.  This particular book was written by a chemical engineer who liked to make beer.  To say that it was highly technical would be like saying building a space shuttle is "crafty".  We were again depressed.

Then, while traveling on North College one day, I saw The Home Brewery Store.  Fate?

Cool Bruce told us how to make beer in normal person language.  Hell, he even made it sound easy!

We bought a bunch of stuff from Bruce and went home to brew.

Here is how it's done.  After you get Chachie to help you (so you don't hurt yourself), You boil water...

Put this huge teabag-lookin thing down in the water for a while...

Add a ton of what is basically sugar...

Boil all that together for an hour (while adding what are called "hops")...

Cool it down as fast as you can to about 75 degrees...

Pour it into a paint bucket with some beer yeast...

Slap an airlock on it..

And wait for about 2 weeks.  This is the hardest part.

Simple, eh?  Only you have to make sure that NOT ONE SINGLE GERM GETS ON ANYTHING.  I made beer years ago in college and I think I forgot this rule.  That beer was called "Toilet Stank".
EJ:  Looks like your last beer.  I'm not drinkin it.

How does he remember "Toilet Stank"?

Anyhoo, about two weeks later we kegged it and...

AWESOMENESS!  Shock!  Surprise!  Astonishment!  Applause!  It was not only drinkable, it was downright good!  Ours is a little darker, but that's cause we don't filter it so much.

We have made 3 more batches since.  Tasty!