I had to replace my E74'd 360 in January, so I got a slightly used Arcade off a dude on Craigslist.  It came packed with Sega Superstars Tennis.  It's not a horrible game, but it's so bland and boring that I put it down after about an hour.  My brother has an Arcade as well, and despite being tennis fans, his kids put up with it for about 20 minutes before running to the store and getting a copy of Top Spin.  Dude, when kids would rather play an overly complicated tennis game than one with Sonic, you know that the game is no good.

My wedding is fast approaching, soh it's time to make some homebrew.  I'm getting married on October 31 (no costumes), so I thought that two batches of pumpkin pie spice pale ale would do nicely.  This time around, I'm taking pictures for posterity and blogging about it to make it feel extra special.  I started batch one last night.  Join me, won't you?
 

Step 1: Sanitation and Prep

 
Anyone will tell you that sanitation is key in all phases of making beer.  My last batch picked up an infection, though I still have no idea where from, so I've redoubled my efforts to make sure that everything that gets even close to my beer is sterilized.  Here's the equipment that we'll be using on brew day for this batch:  
 

1 large funnel (w/strainer), 1 small funnel (w/strainer), 1 glass carboy, 1 rubber stopper with blowoff hose attached, 1 hard plastic spoon, 1 set tongs, 1 candy thermometer, 1 turkey baster, and 1 12-quart stainless steel stockpot.  All of them sit in a solution of water and non-chlorine bleach for at least 20 minutes.  There's also a bunch of other stuff that I didn't need this time, as the large funnel made transferring from the brew pot to the carboy a LOT easier. 
  


Next up is the fun stuff, the stuff that's gon' make the drinkins.  The ingredients for this batch are 1/2 lb. Crystal Malt (not pictured), 1/2 lb. Carapils Malt (not pictured), 6 lbs. Extra Light Dry Malt Extract, 1 oz. Simcoe hop pellets (for boiling), 2 oz. Cascade hop pellets (1 oz. for flavoring, 1 oz. for finishing), 1 packet American Ale Yeast, and 5 gallons distilled water.  We'll also need my hydrometer (to measure specific gravity before putting in the airlock, vodka (for spot cleaning and filling the airlock), and Dominion Oak Barrel Stout (for happiness).  The first rule of brewing is that you have to drink while doing it.   I activated the yeast packet a couple of hours before starting; you can see that the package is really inflated as the yeast is waking up.
   
 

Step 2: The boil

 
 
First, we take the mix of carapils and crystal malts and put it into two grain bags.  This makes them much easier to work with, and makes the entire steeping process not unlike putting a tea bag in water.  Then we dump in a gallon or so of water and bring it all up to about 150 F.  The bags steep for a half-hour, so we drink for a half-hour.  This will impart the color and flavor of the grains into the beer.  Next we pull the grains out and get the pot up to boiling.  
 


 
 
Once the water is boiling, we add the 6 lbs. of dry malt extract and stir it all in.  And we drink some more.  We fill a grain bag with the Simcoe hops, which will impart the floral/bitter flavor.  Since this is a pale ale, it won't be too strong, unlike the hoppy Stone IPA that I was drinking.  Most of my guests drink Bud, so we don't want to floor them with a hoppy beer.  Besides, the spices should take center stage.  After 50 minutes of boiling, we add 1 oz. of the Cascade hops (for flavor).  After 58 minutes of boiling, we add the rest of the Cascade hops (for finishing).  Then we stop the boil and pull the hops out at 60 minutes.
 
 

 
Now we need to cool everything down, so the pot gets a lid and goes into an ice bath for 30 minutes.  During this time, we drink.  The gross-looking bags on the right contain the mushy remains of the hop pellets. 
 

   

Step 3: Into Primary Fermentation

 
So now the wort (aka unfermented beer) is cooled down enough to add to the glass carboy.  I dump it into the large funnel, straining out any remaining gunk.  Then we top off the carboy with another 3-3.5 gallons of water.  We also take a sample of the wort and test it with the hydrometer to get an idea of our potential alcohol.  The reading came out a bit lower than I'd like (1.029), so this will most likely be a relatively weak beer.  I think that'll work for the crowd at the wedding, and the spices should have enough flavor to make the beer interesting (hopefully).  I'll use a bit less water with batch two to give that a bit more punch.  I also give the batch a taste, though honestly it tastes like crap at this point.  It confirmed that this will be a light beer.  

 
 

 

From there, we put in the rubber stopper with the blowoff hose and run the hose into a vase full of water.  This will allow CO2 and any nasty byproducts to blow out out of the top of the carboy, but it also keep the air out of the batch.  Light and air are the worst enemies of good beer.  I keep my carboy in its box to keep some of the light out.  My coat closet has been converted to my beer closet for this occasion.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I checked out the batch the next morning.  All's well, because we've got bubbles!
 
 

 
  

 
By the time I got home from work, there was significant blowoff.  This can be a bit scary, as excessive blowoff means that your beer is probably infected.  My last batch went completely overboard.  However, a couple of hours after taking this photo, the batch settled down nicely and has been simply bubbling away like the good beer that it is.
 
 

 
Now the carboy just needs to sit for about a week.  Once the bubbling subsides, that tells us that the sugars have been consumed by the yeast and that the beer is ready to be transferred for secondary fermentation.  Right now, I'm in the middle of brewing batch two as I write this.  I simply repeat the same process over again, especially the drinking part.  The only difference is that I'm drinking Ommegang's Abbey Ale this time around.

Actually, I rarely buy any game brand new, with the exception of Rock Band games and RPGs.  I prefer to wait until they drop in price.  The only one on the list that I actually expect to get right when they come out are Scribblenauts and LEGO Rock Band, but those will be as presents for other people.

Upcoming 2009 Must-Owns

	1. Scribblenauts My wife-to-be's b-day is coming up, and she is getting this game...so that I can have it, too
	2. LEGO Rock Band I'm not that interested in the LEGO aspects, but the setlist is surprisingly solid, and the songs will be exportable.
	3. Fallout 3 Specifically the GOTY edition. I bought Fallout 3 when it came out, but I haven't gotten the DLC packs.
	4. Dragon Age: Origins I love fantasy settings, and I've really enjoyed Bioware's latest games. I'm really looking forward to this game.
	5. Assassin's Creed II Despite having the same complaints as others about AC (repetitive missions, etc.), I still think it's one of the best games that I've played in the past few years. I can't wait to see how the Italian setting works.

I just caught myself singing along and bopping my head to Dead on Arrival by Fallout Boy at work.  I need to go take a shower and get the suck off of myself.