i cant cook. sure, i can pop some things on the stove and check the directions.... but im far from extreme experimentation. i dont bake at all and i am a far cry from making a home made spaghetti sauce. but im not dead. i survive. sometimes i do get a little cocky in the kitchen and add some ingredients here and there despite what the labels say. i mean, i try. i really want to make things that taste amazing. but for any real endeavor, i think you need passion. do some figuring for me.... any veteran reader of this blog knows i can get a little crazy with hot dogs. when i make hot dogs, I MAKE HOT DOGS. so i explored other passions.

i love beer. (that is all for this paragraph)

since i love hot dogs so much, i dont consider my culinary adventures with them as cooking. since i love beer so much, i couldnt figure out why i didnt embark on the same adventures with beer. so i hopped on the interwebs and found some people who would, for money, ship me the things i needed to make the universes most wonderful substance.

right this second, i am drinking an ale spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. seasoned for the holidays. brewed on the stove of my living space. i have a gigantic 10 gallon pot. i put 6 gallons of water in it. i heat it to 150 degress and steep crushed grains that i put in a muslin bag for 30 minutes. i pour bring it to a boil. i pour in malt extracts and hops and let it roll for about 50 minutes. i add more hops and watch over it for another 10 minutes. it cools to 70 degress. i add the yeast. pour it in a 5 gallon bucket and it sits in the corner of my room for 2 weeks. i bottle it. 2 weeks later i get hammered.

it sounds like a lot of work... it is. its worth it. i get to have a hobby and get drunk all at the same time. everyone should have a hobby. everyone should get drunk.