Mar 17, 2011

Say Cheese... and Beer

































As part of a self-sustainable lifestyle we are trying to live I am becoming interested in cheese making and Brian has become interested in beer making. So just like everything new we try we started our research.

For Brian's birthday I ordered him a beer making kit which included all the materials we needed except the bottles and ordered all the ingredients for the beer and cheese from Austin Home Brew Supply. Then called, emailed all our beer-drinking friends and posted on freecycle to gather bottles.

His first and second batches of beer turned out great and the kids and I had fun watching the fermenting process. We now have a short life times supply of beer in our little spare fridge.

And as for the cheese...

Our first try at mozzarella turned out crumbly and too salty but was great on pizza . Needless to say I was a little disappointed so I did some more research, watched some more youtube, tried again. This time it was perfect... well almost. The biggest score was that the kids loved it!! I sliced it and they eat it like string cheese.

With a few simple ingredients, a gallon of milk and about an hour anyone could do this!! I even made my own mother-cultures and am currently working on cream cheese... I'll let you know how that turns out tomorrow. I also made buttermilk which when added to my multi-grain pancakes were delicious.

I am hooked and can't wait to try my hand at some hard cheeses, I am just waiting on Brian to build me a press...

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