Another boy! & beer.

Our brother in law Ken is busy building a fence around their backyard, so Keith offered to go help this past Friday evening and Saturday morning. Keith had ulterior motives, though, since he wanted to borrow some of Ken's tools and he wanted a lesson in beer-making. I was eager to see Angela's developing belly, so off we went! I am pleased to report that Angela's little belly is growing, so baby Evan must be growing. And yes, I realized I did not post what the sex of their baby is yet, it's a boy. Evan William will be a great playmate for Cole and Grady! Angela and I watched their ultrasound video, and aside from the alien-baby face all babies in utero seem to have, he is a cutie.

I mentioned there was beer-making going on, and while I was not present in the garage during the lessons, here is an outline of Keith's beer-making process (from my perspective):

1. Hope that your sister marries a man that has a detailed interest in beer. He should be interested in all things beer: drinking of, learning about, and most importantly, the making and sharing of said beer.

2. Drop heavy hints that you would also like to learn about beer making.

3. Add "beer-making tools" to your annual Wish List to Santa. 'cc your brother in law on the letter.

4. Receive beer-making materials for Christmas '06. Ignore your wife's eye-rolling when you ask if you can store the materials somewhere in your already crowded house.

5. 11 months later, when brother in law has home improvement you can help with, go to brother-in-law's house for lesson.

6. Open a beer, and start drinking. To learn about beer, one must consume some first.

7. Sterilize equipment. Put barley in water, bring to 155F for 30 minutes.

8. Get another beer, add malt syrup. To the barley mixture, not the beer in your hand.

10. Raise solution to a boil, allow it to boil for 60 minutes. Go inside to check on the woman-folk, get another beer.

11. Start cooling the mixture.

12. Realize that while you were chatting, you forgot to add the hops. Return liquid to boil, add hops. Boil for 30 minutes.

13. Go check on the woman-folk again. (they were looking at catalogs earlier, and you are concerned that money is being spent). Woman-folk are party poopers and head to bed.
(Editor's Note: the rest of this is pure speculation since I went to bed)

14. Cool and strain mixture. As you watch the liquid flow through the sieve, marvel at the easy of making beer when your brother in law does most of the work.

15. Add yeast. For good measure, you drink another beer.

16. Allow yeast to do it's thing for about 2-3 weeks. Make plans to return to brother in law's to bottle beer, drink a few and discuss the progress of the infamous fence.

17. Head to bed and dream of the possibility of you and brother in law starting an award winning brewery and work involved nothing but making and tasting beer.

Verdict on the outcome of the beer coming later. Pictures are also coming later.