Beer & bread making.
> That experience turned out to be superb. We went to a village where my
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> uncle and my grandparents live. In the beginning we were just two me
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> and one friend, plus locals of course:) First evening we just went for
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> some play-fishing, catching 10cm fish, which becomes some kind of
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> fish-chips once you fry them:) And in the evening we were watching
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> some videos about beer and bread making, my uncle filmed it in 2004.
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> 1st day, morning, starts with cleaning up. There is semi-abandoned
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> houses from grand-grand-parents near by, ant there in the former
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> smithy we made the beer, it was quite scenic;) So in the morning we go
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> and clean up the smithy, get some wood, and start setting the fire,
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> took some time before we got it going smoothly since the stove was not
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> used for long time there was quite some smoke in the beginning. We got
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> several buckets of ash from it when we cleaned it.
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> Next you get ~30l of water boiling and put some hops into it, and
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> basically start floating from dizzyingly pleasant smell. Then you let
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> it cool a bit and put another ~30l of water to boil up. Meanwhile you
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> go get ~50kg of barley malt and grind it roughly, once again you start
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> seeing Dali like images from the dazzling smell. While things are
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> cooling down, we go get the filter tun and beer maturation tun, that
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> were pre-soaking in the grandparents yard.
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> It was getting close to the evening, luckily another friend arrived,
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> extra help was just in time. So then you put the water from the hops,
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> which is still hot but not too hot onto the malt, and start mixing
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> until it’s all saturated with water and the stick stands straight (as
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> instructed by the grandfather), then leave it for 4 hours to cool
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> down. This stuff which doesn’t have alcohol yet is called “misa”. On
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> to preparing the filtering tun, cut some thin birch sticks and cover
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> the bottom of the tun, put some barley straws from the field nearby.
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> It was 20 o’clock by then so it was good time to get some rest, go
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> swimming into the river, get some dinner. By the way we had the most
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> amazing and “unhealthy” food you can imagine, some boiled potatoes
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> with source that is made from cream, onions, spices and with pieces of
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> ham and fat from (definitely) pork, plus some sour milk everything
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> home made which means (very) high fat and obviously – great;)
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> Dew was falling and the mist was coming up from the river, colours
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> turned heavy. Another ~30l of water was heating up. And while “misa”
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> was still soaking in all the flavours from the malt, we fried our mini
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> fishes from the day before ;) .
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> Ok next, we have our filtering tun ready, put the hops on top of the
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> straws, put all the “misa” (malt with water-hops tea :) and top it
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> with fresh hot 30l of water, then you just go mental from another
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> burst of smell coming up from the tun. Then let the liquid out,
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> collect it into a big bath and let it cool. Next put all the liquid
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> into another tun put some yeast, cover it with a cloth and leave for a
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> well earned sleep. It was 3:30 by then:)
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> Next morning we came into the smithy and you could hear the beer
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> talking, literally… Later that day we got the grandfather into the
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> smithy to try it out, it was dead silence when he tried, and then a
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> big relieve when he said, “it’s beer”:)
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> So while the beer was talking we started with the bread, got 8kg of
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> rye flower and mixed some dough into a special bread making tun, which
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> had remnants from previous bread from four years ago. So the idea is
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> that you don’t wash the dish you dry it after you make bread and then
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> the next time (even some years later) when you soak it with water and
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> make new dough the same bacteria gets back into action and ferments
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> the dough into the same good taste.
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> Ok next morning back to beer, fermentation is done all you need to do
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> is pour it into a barrel and store in a cool cellar.
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> In the afternoon two more friends came so we started tasting the beer…yppiii;)
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> Back to the bread, in the evening the dough is right, you have to
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> knead it well (under strict supervision of the grandmother) form bread
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> loafs, and very important make a little one with marmalade inside (my
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> dictionary says it’s called scraping) which is typically most awaited
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> by kids:) Then you put them all into a hot stove. Once again you get
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> dizzy from the smell that is filling the yard and everyone starts
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> gathering around for the fresh bread :)
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> The night was long we were drinking the beer, eating fresh bread and
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> more great food, talking, and drinking more beer, we drank close to
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> 20l that day:)

Foto: http://picasaweb.google.com/alminaite/BeerMaking2010#