Homebrewing Distractions

Ken and I had to sit through 10 miserable hours of childbirth classes this past weekend. A great idea in theory, but 10 hours is excessive -- even (or especially) when it's split between two days. I learned the following things though:

1. I have way more time when I go into labor than I originally thought
2. I theoretically know what contractions are and am pretty sure I haven't felt any (real or "practice")
3. I really, really want the epidural.
4. I've had a pretty easy pregnancy
5. I'm glad Ken is my partner
6. I'm hoping Katie isn't born on a Sunday or Monday else I will have to share Ken with NFL. Or fantasy football. Or other football-watching spouses who may also be in the hospital that day.

When we got home on Saturday, we had Brian and Dennis over to help pick the hops we've been growing over the arbor and brew some beer using the freshly picked hops. Ingrid came to help as well as dig up some plants to divide and move to their yard. Win, win. Here's the crew harvesting (20min max).



And here's the resulting harvest. We have a lot leftover. The far bowl weighed 15 oz or so; we used it for the beer that night. The rest I'm freezing for later use. There are still a ton of hops left on the vine. I've told some local homebrewers they're welcome to them if they pick them. I'm too tired and big at this point.



The beer we made is a hoppy northwest red ale. It's apparently pretty forgiving. It's my first batch of all grain beer (rather than using malt extracts, etc). I've seen Brian do it in the past, so it wasn't completely new. But it was still my first attempt. Especially while trying to teach others. It's bubbling away now. Fingers crossed it turns out.