How Low Can You Go: Beer!

I have talked about doing homemade gifts in 2011 and less purchased items.  I was sitting at work last week, and I thought about Todd and his beer.  Todd loves beer.  He likes the dark, bock beers.  All of a sudden, a light went off in my head.  I am going to try to make Todd beer!  We make our own wine and have all of the equipment needed.  I found several websites that have instructions, and there are a few YouTube videos as well.

I saw online that there are these adorable brown plastic beer bottles that can be purchased from Amazon.com (swagbucks!) for $14.  I was so excited I found them.  They are reusable! Just wash them out and then rebottle in them with the next batch!  Then I remembered what this is really about.  It’s not about the LOOKS of the bottled beer, it is about the TASTE and showing my creativity and love to Todd.  I can get plastic bottles from people here at work.  They drink bottled water like it’s going out of style (I wish they’d invest in a Kleen Kanteen,) and the bottles are always in the recycle bin.  There is a sanitizer that is used for wine and beer making that cleans them out thoroughly.  The only thing I will need to make the beer is malt.

Another great thing from what I’ve read about the beer-making process, it doesn’t take NEARLY as long as wine does.  Todd could be drinking his homemade beer within 2-3 weeks of me starting the project. 10 gallons could be made for the price of the malt and some sugar.  It was recommended that if I want to bypass the sugar (which I do because the least amount of ingredients used, the better my chances are to making great tasting beer,) I could double-up on the malt and leave the sugar out.  SO…because we have a 6 gallon carboy instead of a 10 gallon bucket, and the malt comes in 4 lb cans, I am going to make 4 gallons of beer for Todd.  I came up with this number after doing some math.  I did some research and found that the malt I would want to buy to make a dark bock for Todd would be less than $15!  This malt would make 4 gallons (of the double-malt, no sugar mixture) which is equal to 32 – 16 oz. bottles of beer.  How much would the beer cost per bottle, you ask? $0.47!

I probably wont start the batch until February to be ready for his 40^th birthday.  I am going to try to hide it from him so that it will be a surprise.  I cant wait!  I am horrible and keeping surprises.  Can I do it?!? We will find out!