I’m sorry to hear about your wife’s accident! 
But I’m super glad she has bounced back from it! 
Now you don’t have to worry about the cooking. 
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Oooh. I thought only factories and mass production companies have those bread machines. Haha. 
I wonder how they work though. 
Get back into it! Especially since most of us have more time on our hands. I’m excited to see photos of your baking adventures.
I alternate between genres depending on my mood. I am as likely to play Stardew Valley as I am to play Borderlands.
As for bread machines, no, there are plenty of models designed for people to use at home. They’re about half the size of a microwave oven. I am pleased with the result, they’re easy to use, we get fresh bread every day and we know exactly what goes into your bread.
Regarding how they work, you just put the ingredients in the machine, let it do its thing and you have fresh bread in a few hours. They all have different programs for different types of bread depending on what you prefer - from white bread to bread without gluten. You can see a lot of reviews on Youtube if you’re interested.
I’ve become a new homebrewer! Just finished my 8th brew the other day. Best hobby ever!
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That’s amazing! And it sounds complicated. Tell us more about it?
I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much like cooking (already a love of mine) it is. You start with a large brew kettle. They vary in size, but 10 gallons is a popular kettle size for a homebrewer, allowing us to easily make 5 gallon batches of beer at a time (fills standard 1/6th bbl keg size or about 50 bottles). Many homebrewers use a propane burner with a stand and have to brew outdoors, but my kitchen stove is just barely powerful enough to get the job done, so I can brew indoors. Bonus!
The beer recipe itself will start with a bunch of water (6.5-7.5 gal in my case for a 5 gal batch) and something called “wort” is created. Wort is basically the pre-alchoholic sugar water that will turn into beer after yeast eats it. New brewers will often use kits which contain everything they need for their recipe. The most basic kits are called extract kits, and most of what you need to make your wort has been powderized into what’s called malt extract. In that case, you can merely stir the extract powder into the water to create the base of your wort. Most experienced brewers prefer “full grain” recipes instead. This gives you a lot more control and variation of your beer than an extract kit. Don’t get me wrong, you can make some GREAT beers from extract kits. My first one was, and it turned out really good. Think of it like a cake mix. You can get a really good cake out of a box, but if you make it from scratch, you have a lot more possibility, and may end up with a better outcome. There are a couple of ways to do full-grain. I use a basic technique called BIAB or “brew in a bag” that uses only my brew kettle. Professional brewers use a system with multiple tanks to accomplish the same. I’ll stick with discussing my BIAB technique here for brevity.
Once you’ve got your brew kettle full of the right amount of (chlorine-free) water, something resembling a giant, nylon teabag is inserted and cinched to the kettle. Temperature is increased to the required mash temperature (often about 152ish). Grains need be crushed to break open the hulls. You can get your grains pre-crushed, but kinda like coffee beans, I prefer to crush right before use for maximum freshness, so I invested in a small grain mill. Once the grains are crushed, they are added to the water at temperature and steeped for about an hour. After that, the spent grain bag is removed the grains are discarded (or saved to make dog treats).
This leaves you in about the same place you’d be if you used an extract kit, with wort that is ready to boil. From here you bring the wort to a full boil. Once it’s boiling you add hops per your recipe’s directions. Hops provide the crisp, bitter flavors in beer. After boiling for 60-90 mins, the wort must be quickly brought down to a temperature where yeast can be added (normally about 65 degrees). It’s important to get that temp down as fast as possible to avoid post-boil contamination. There are a few ways to do this. I use something called a copper wort chiller that is connected to a garden hose or faucet. Cold water is pumped through the copper coils and pumped out the other end to a drain. This cools the wort down to yeast pitching temperature quickly.
Once you’ve got your wort down to temp, it is transferred to a fermenting vessel. For many homebrewers this is a large glass jug called a carboy, although different sizes and materials are also available. Oxygen is added for the yeast either by vigorous shaking, or preferably an oxygen wand. After that, yeast (also part of the recipe ingredients) is added. Yeasts produce alcohol as a byproduct as they eat the sugars in the wort, and all kinds of different beer characteristics that will determine much of the flavor. Once the yeast is added, the fermenter is placed in a cool, dry, dark place for about 2 weeks, while the yeasties do their job. This is the most interesting part, as fermentation is FUNKY business. It’s really fun to watch. The wort churns around as if it’s boiling, a foamy head called krausen forms on top, and throughout this process, a stopper with a blow-off tube is inserted, with the other end of the tube in some water. This keeps oxygen and contaminates out while allowing C02 from fermentation to vent.
After fermenting for a couple of weeks, the beer is transferred to kegs or bottles, carbonated, and served!
The best learning resource for this is a book called “How to Brew” by John Palmer. It is the homebrewer’s bible and will teach you everything you need to know. Good Luck!
https://www.amazon.com/How-Brew-Everything-Great-Every/dp/1938469356
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i am constantly working so no 
I wish
Wow thank you for taking the time to answer in such detail! And with such awesome photoes too! Thank you!
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Waaaah. That was a very interesting read! And thank you for the photos too! Haha. 
It’s nice to see that you’ve found something you’re passionate with even during this pandemic.
Nice article enickma 
- I’ve never done an all-grain mash, buyt as a younger (and skint) manI did quite a lot of beer and wine making - It took me ages to learn to get it clear. But if you get some tapered neck screw top bottles and wait 'til it’s nearly clear, then syphon into the bottles, put in your priming sugar and stand them upside down and very slightly leaning, Then once or twice a day give them a sharp twist, the lees will settle down in the screw cap. Then when clear, take them in still upside down and hold the bottle top slightly under water, you can unscrew the top a bit and teh escaping pressurised beer will blow the sediment clean out of the bottle - Voila clear beer every time and very little wastage.
The I picked up a second hand rotokeg at a car boot and a second hand sodastream which I stamped on and used the works to adapt the rotokeg and waited until the mash fell clear, syphoned into the keg and used teh sodastream gas to carbonate and lift the beer out into the waiting glass. You can then put as much or as little gas into the beer as you like and just a quick press on the little lever as teh level drops keeps you in control all teh way down. You get several kegs of carbonation out of one gas refill.
Reading your great piece - I remembered I do have a really nice second hand electric mash tun I bought for nefarious purposes several years ago - but then went a different route so it’s never been used by me - So maybe this year I’ll give the All-grain a try.
Thanks mate - yet another item on the “to-do” list ! 
Anyhow like I said - Nice write up and some good looking kit there too
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Very cool, and thank you!! I picked up a “beer gun” by Blichmann, and it lets me use CO2 to purge the bottle, and then shoot the already-carbonated beer from the keg into the bottle, then I just cap it. I feel the same way you do about sediment.
Hi, enjoyed your post very much… I’m a big winemaker ( about 200 litres on the go at the moment ). Anyway, I’m just about to embark on some beer making and was interested in your process, thanks for the info.
Did you malt your grain or can you buy it pre-done ?
And where can I buy a "bunch’ of water… (Sorry, I’m guessing you are American) … It just sounds a bit odd to my ears.
Hey Falstaff, you should give the distilling a go if you have the stuff already… And you don’t have to worry about the clarity after you go blind anyway. Where I live it’s not strictly illegal but you wish it was the day after.
Thanks for your reply @Barrigan - I might give that a try 
Forget “going blind” - that’s just propaganda.
In UK the legals are a little confused - yes you can buy a still in any home brew shop or on e-bay - but Law says you cannot do it without you pay duty on it - So it’s not illegal, but you must pay duty. Now go look at the “Duty” rules and they are simply not interested unless your still has a capacity of 400 Gallons (500 Gallons in USA measure) - So from a realistic point of view - they’re simply not interested in “hobbyists”.
If you’re getting hangovers like you describe - my guess is you have one of these
Otherwise - it’s a home made setup and you’re not doing your cuts right 
Any newbie would do well to study the “new to…” section here
https://homedistiller.org/forum/
or for cuts only try “Stillit”
PS - You’re not using “turbo” yeast are you ? 
Hi @Falstaff,
I’m actually pretty good with the cuts and I don’t get a headache because although I make booze I rarely drink… I just enjoy doing it. My latest lot was 150 litres of my neighbour’s wine that had partially gone to vinegar.
I’ve just got some turbo yeast to try on my next batch coincidentally… What’s the story ?
Did you taste It ? - I have to say I only tried that once and it didn’t turn out a success ! - the conversion seems far too quick for me and the intermediate stages are fairly low distillation temperatures - Although some of the LAds on that site I lnked to do deliberately infect their Rum washes - particularly with LActobacteria and Butyric infections and one used acetobacteria (vinegar bug)
The Lad who runs my local “Home Brew shop” uses Turbo all the time - It is a very high ABV yeast and supposedly can ferment to around really quick 24% abv using just plain sugar - so it’s packed full of “Nutrients” - Still Spirits (who sell the commercial stills such as that one I linked to Push it for all they’re worth. Then They push the “Activated charcoal” - to get the muck out of the ferment and “Flavourings” to make fake whiskey etc
I have to say the Lad makes me sample his “stuff” and I am always saddened that those who know no better think they’re “doing it right” - do let us know how yours turns out
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I did taste the distilled vinegar wine… It was very strong stuff ( I distilled it twice )
I will be starting with the turbo yeast at the weekend. The pack says that it’s all in there for 25 litres but I have a 130 litre vessel so I am obviously expecting it to take longer.
Been doing baking as well, but not proud enough to share that
Also, found myself trying out some old game to play, felt nostalgic to give them a try again to reminiscence my childhood.
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That’s some good looking bread 
nice baking skills.