Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving Day

Ok. So I know it has been way too long since I wrote anything, so I am sorry. Suddenly being a father is quite overwhelming but I am starting to get the hang of it. Here is my first post in a while so enjoy.

Thanksgiving Day turned out to be a busy day here. A bunch of the Embassy people get together for a touch football game on Thanksgiving. As the week rolled along the people organizing the game were having trouble getting a pitch (field in the States) to play on. So on Wednesday the game was basically canceled due to no pitch to play on. So I thought I would have a nice relaxing day off. Do a little cooking, whole lot of eating and basically relax a bit. On Wednesday afternoon we got incoming pouch that had the brewing supplies I have been waiting on. There was a long ordeal in getting the supplies here in order to try brewing my first batch of beer. So once it finally came on Wednesday and the football game was canceled I decide I would try to brew my first batch of beer on Thanksgiving. So when I wake up today (thanksgiving day) I had some breakfast, and then started getting everything together to brew. So I am in the middle of the process of brewing and Lynne comes down to tell me that I got and SMS on my phone. So I go check in case it is important and here there is a message from the Ambassador's husband that the game is on for one o'clock at Golden Bay. Golden Bay is one of the few sandy beaches in Malta.

Now I am not sure that I will be able to make it because I am not sure how long it will take to finish brewing the wort and getting it sealed up in the fermenter. When brewing beer you boil all the ingredients and make this liquid called wort. When boiling is done you move the wort from the pot to the fermenter let the wort cool and add yeast. Over the next 6-14 days the yeast turns the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. One thing about brewing is sanitation is really important so you can’t stop midway or you might get some nasty bacteria or wild yeast that will make everything taste terrible. So I have to get everything properly sealed before leaving. I finish up the boiling and moving the wort to the fermenter around noon. I realize it is going to take hours to let the wort cool in order to pitch the yeast. So I seal up the frementer tight and do some clean up and I run off to the football game. I will pitch the yeast after the game. Hope this works.

The football game was played on a sandy beach. Sand is really not fun to play football on. On defense it is nearly impossible to cut and jump routes. This made it an offense heavy day. Fun all in all tho. Once home I finish clean up from the brewing. The wort was still pretty warm from feeling the sides of the bucket so I waited another hour before pitching the yeast. Then I went to shower. The turkey was running way ahead of schedule on being done so I had to start my portion of the dinner early then expected. So my relaxing day ended up being pretty busy till it was all said and done. I had fun doing everything today but did end up being pretty full.