Beer Solutions

Stopped in quickly at Beer Solutions tonight to pick up some sanitizer for bottling the `old Yuletide Brew tomorrow, and had a chance to chat a little with Curt.

The sign limiting hops purchases only with malt purchases has been taken down! When I mentioned this, he said yeah, things are easing up now, so the limitations are history. That's good news as he informed me that Simcoe® hops will be coming in shortly--this year's crop--and I intend to be one of the first in line when they do.

On the way out, I noticed a cool new get-yer-whistle-wet-to-home-brew kit, for $6.99. It comes in a 2 liter plastic soda bottle and it contains the whole kit and kaboodle for doing a small batch of beer. The bottle has water, and hopped malt syrup already mixed and on the cap is a small yeast tablet. All you gotta do is, open the bottle, pop the yeast tablet in, seal it back up, and two weeks later, voila, fresh home-brewed beer! There are three varieties: A Red Lager, and pilsner, and something else. He said that some winemakers had been in and wanted to give brewing a try but didn't want to do a whole 5 gal. batch. If you ask me this is a perfect stocking stuffer for someone who's always wondered what brewing's all about!

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