If I’m not blogging about bread, then it’s beer… (or so it would seem) have I found a niche, or just an obsession of late, with bread in liquid and solid form????

I brought a sixpack of my coffee bock to a family get together today. My uncle was in town, (I hoped with some of his own wine in tow) and I thought my bro-in law (a coffee junkie in his own right) would be able to get behind this one. Alas he wasn’t there (whole family is sick, sick, sick) so I’ll have to set a few more aside. But Dad, my uncle and I each gave it a shot.

My second impression was that the coffee flavor had mellowed somewhat. Last time I had it for “dessert” and it was essentially black iced coffee in an otherwise smooth (and non-beer flavored) higher than standard alcohol content bock. While it didn’t pair very well with my dinner (lasagne, salad, garlic bread) it was fabulous with a brownie – better than the real coffee I had.

My uncle gave it the thumbs up – and became the proud owner of the remaining three in the fridge – Dad drank it, but declined comment. Mom – not so much a fan… (but as a non-beer drinking, milk and sugar in her coffee type, I didn’t expect that she would.)

This was my first attempt at bottling in glass bottles – until now I’d used plastic 1 liter bottles (as recommended by the kit manufacturer for beginners, as you could tell by feel if the carbonation was ready or not. (by how hard the bottle had become). All but a couple of the glass 12 oz bottles I’d used were screw top bottles, but I used the bottle capper anyway (and crossed my fingers that there wouldn’t be an explosion in the kitchen. All was well, until Dad went to open the third bottle. He barely even touched the cap, when we heard the pop of a champagne cork (and the cap bounced off the dining room ceiling, and landed on the far side of the kitchen. Ok for this pass, but I suspect I shouldn’t be recycling those, if only for safety’s sake.

Dad recently worked on a house where the owner grew his own hops, so I’ve been thinking about trying my hand at that in the coming years, and will be able to sample an even more “homemade” brew. Was great to bake a cake with my own handcrafted stout, but to have more of the ingredients come off my land… so much the better! Also learned today that my uncle (started roasting his own coffee… seems you can re-purpose an older model popcorn machine to do the job.) I’m almost inspired enough to try that myself as well.

Oh, that first bit about my uncle being a wine-maker (Yep – Forget about all these celebrities releasing their own wines, I came home with a beautiful bottle of Pinot)… but more on that next time.