Beer 201

A little late for Easter, our first Easter Egger (my guess is Blinky) started dropping these bombs in the back of the coop.  The convenient nestbox complete with golf ball decor and external access was a little too "Irvine Company" for her taste, so now we tramp through chicken guano to retrieve her treasures.  Eggs have been getting slightly bigger by the day, but probably won't ever rival the uber brown grocery store version.  That said, the shells are way thicker and cooler colored and you've got peace of mind knowing where your food comes from.  Still waiting on potentially more easter eggs as well as the Maran dark brown eggs.  

MacGyver got a summons at work from The Loading Dock.  In a lucid moment, he had decided the 50lbs of grain and assorted equipment necessary for All Grain brewing was a bit much to ask the United States Postal Workers to lob over the padlocked gate.  Somehow it all fit in the Mini Cooper thanks to my limited legroom needs and his comfort driving with absolutely no rear view visibility.  The impetus for this project was 

1.  Consistently feed the chickens their favorite "mash" snack instead of conventional chicken feed

2.  Slightly cheaper materials (not that the inputs were that expensive to begin with)

3.  Increase MacGyver's beer snob cred (with minimal brewing of passe IPA) 

Now Ye Olde Stove looks not unlike a soccer sideline to me...  

Because I am not a beer snob, I will give you a very dumbed down version of what is going on here.  

Before:  we would make a limited amount of grain tea to give the beer an identity (i.e. wheat beer vs stout, etc.).  To the tea, we added some concentrated grain syrup and tons of water.  We'd boil this a while, add hops and other flair (i.e. coffee and smoked pepper for my Diableer).  Then we'd cool the kettle off in a sink bath, transfer the tea to a carboy, dump in yeast and airlock it.  

The new process cuts out the concentrated grain syrup step and creates lots more grain for the chickens.  It takes an hour or two longer (more if you are in 'set sail for fail' mode on your maiden voyage).  

Now:  boil oodles of water in giant stock pot that covers all 4 burners (manly!).  Use the spigot to siphon water into the thing resembling a Gatorade cooler while it is on the ground.  Clamber up the step ladder with said "cooler" of boiling hot water.  Route approx 4 gallons of water into lower "cooler" which is full of approx 15 lbs of grain (you have milled using a drill attachment).  Let it sit for an hour.  Cascade still warm water from top cooler into lower cooler using something that looks like a cross between a submerged PVC landmine and a sprinkler.  Cascade water from lower cooler into the giant stock pot (now on the ground and hopefully cooled off).  Boil this, add hops and other flair.  Cool with a copper heat transfer pipe (which was too big to fit in the concentrated brewing pot).  Runoff is routed into our laundry grey water surge tank to irrigate the avocado.  Transfer to a carboy, dump in yeast and airlock it.  Celebrate by scooping the spent grain in the lower cooler into every conceivable empty container you can find.