Beer Cheese Soup!

Super good beer cheese soup!!

Ingredients:

4 Cubes Chicken Bouillon

1 (12oz) Beer (I recommend a cheap lager)

4 cups water

1 ½ cubed potatoes

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup chopped onion

1 (8-10oz) package frozen or fresh broccoli

2 (10.75oz) cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 pound processed cheese food (Velveeta) Cubed + Black diamond Aged Cheddar( 2 to 3oz)

1.       Large pot over medium high heat, dissolve the bouillon in the beer and water. Add potatoes, celery, carrots and onions. Mix well and allow to cook for 15 to 20 mins.

2.       Stir in the broccoli and heat for 10ish mins. Then add the condensed chicken soup and cheese. Reduce heat to low and allow cheese to melt… be sure to sir often.

I make fresh rolls to go with it!

This is very good... and you can use this to make MacNcheese too!

Ready in 1 hour, makes around 6 servings!!

(Prep Timp 20ish mins., Cook time 40ish mins)

Enjoy! <3

Kegging the Special Espresso Pumpkin Spice Brew!

We let this batch sit for a week before re-racking it. Then we re-racked a few more times, trying to carefully strain it each time to get rid of as much sediment as we could.

Smelled, looked and tasted great! All it needed was carbonation! And so we kegged our first brew!

We let it carbonate for about a day - probably would have been better if we did this longer.. But we were too excited! We invited over several of our beer aficionado friends and encouraged them to bring something they made or something they have wanted to try. We had lots of unique beers and ciders and of course tasty treats!

We decided to bottle some as well so that we could enter the Homebrew Competition at the Oregon Garden Brewfest being held April 27th & 28th. Oregon Garden Brewfest Info

Judging is on the 28^th. We opened one of the extra bottles to see how it was..it was fantastic!! Steve entered in our Apricot Hard Cider too. We will let you know how we do!

BrewChick: Today … I brewed an Espresso Pumpkin Stout.

BrewChick: Today … I brewed an Espresso Pumpkin Stout.: This fall I was really excited about trying various pumpkin brews. I especially loved trying some local brews. I grew my own batch of ...

Today … I brewed an Espresso Pumpkin Stout.

This fall I was really excited about trying various pumpkin brews. I especially loved trying some local brews.

 I grew my own batch of pumpkins especially for the purpose of making my own pumpkin beer.

I think that Rogue made my favorite one this year. But I tried many!

 For my Espresso Pumpkin Stout this is what I used

Ingredients

§  4# Dark Malt Extract

§  3# Light Malt Extract

§  5 oz Dark Malt Extract (for priming)

§  1# Crystal Malt 90L (Whole Grain, Crushed)

§  1/8# Roasted Barley (Whole Grain, Crushed)

§  1/8# Black Patent Malt (Whole Grain, Crushed)

§  1/4# Chocolate Malt (Whole Grain, Crushed)

§  2 oz Northern Brewer Hops

§  .5 oz Willamette Hops

§  16 shots Fresh Brewed Espresso (http://stumptowncoffee.com/) one of my local favorites.

§  Irish Ale liquid Yeast

Plus: use 30oz pumpkin, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger, and 1/4 tsp clove last 5 min of boil. Ferment at 65-70F.

At kegging (and bottling) I will add:

1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1/8 tsp ginger, 1/8 tsp clove, 1 tsp real vanilla extract.

Right now, It smells really good. Great dark color… I’m really excited about this batch!!

Here are some shots of my brew process