Whoops

Well, we learned a good lesson in homebrewing on Thursday night.  A nylon sock does not make a good substitute for an actual grain sock.

Long story short - everything should be included in the beer kit you purchase, including the "grain sock" which is what you put the grains in to then steep in your boiling hot water (think of it like a giant tea bag).  And when we opened our kit on Thursday night, everything was there but the grain sock.  We could have gone to get one, but that would have majorly delayed things and so Nate being a quick thinker said "hey, maybe we could use one of your nylons as long as we clean it and such, it should work about the same."  And it seemed like it would at first - until after the 1/2 hour of steeping it started to smell of burned plastic.  Bye bye brew.

So you're probably wondering, what do you do now, you wasted the grains, can you still brew it?  The short answer is yes.  We were able to go back and just purchase the grains that were in the kit (and a grain sock!)

We ended up running to the homebrew store to pick up those items before we left town on Friday.  Now it's a matter of finding time to brew it again.  We were going to do it yesterday when we got home, and we were home in plenty of time, but the weather was not cooperating.  So now it might be happening tonight.  We'll see how things go.  Sure would like to have this beer on tap for our party, but if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.

So there's your beer lesson for the day.