Brewing beer counts as cooking right?

I recently picked up the hobby of home beer brewing. Let me tell you it is a blast. Surprisingly it is incredibly simple to do and does not cost a whole lot. A starter kit usually runs about $80 and includes pretty much everything you need to brew a simple ale. All you need to buy after that is a 3-5 gallon stockpot, you might have one. There are other kits you can get with more equipment if you have a little bit more money to spare, but they aren’t needed for just starting out. I recommend buying your equipment and supplies at Midwest Brewing. If you look around you can find a local brew store. We have two in Albany. After the initial startup cost you can buy a brew kit which has all the ingredients for the style of beer you choose and you are ready to brew your first batch. Kits usually anywhere from $25 to $35. So now you have all the necessary equipment and ingredients (costing about $150) you can now brew your first batch. Usually the brewing process takes about 3 hours, lots of boiling. The only thing you need to do is make sure you sanitize everything. After you boil everything and place it in the fermentor bucket you just need to let it ferment for about 2 weeks. After 2 weeks you bottle it and let it carbonate for another week or 2 and yo have you first batch of beer. Most batches make about 52 bottles of beer, that’s 4 12-packs!  Not to bad right. After an initial start up cost, which includes the first batch, you can brew  52 bottles of beer for about $30 a batch, which is cheaper and more fun then just buying it at the store. Plus its fun to do and the beer tastes better then store bought beer because you made it yourself. So if you like drinking beer, like myself, this is a great hobby to pick up. If you want you can even make your own labels for you bottles. I’ll explain a easy to make solution that doesn’t cost nearly as much as buying label making kits in stores in another post. Until then here’s a picture of my custom beer label I made in my spare time. Happy brewing!!!