Adventures in Yeast

Yesterday Ross and I headed to Borders in the hopes of finding a DVD box set to burn a 40% off coupon on. Sadly...the DVD section was sub-par, leaving us wandering the store for other perks. Right round the corner was the cooking section. Ethnic foods caught my eye first. Ross made a beeline for the slow cooker cookbooks. But in between lay the yeast.

A colleague and friend of my back in Honolulu was both an avid baker and a home brewer. All things yeast seemed right up his alley. "The Baker's Apprentice" was often spotted downstairs at the theatre...with glorious photos of toothy crusts and soft crumb. An occasional weekday night found us at his apartment just down the street from us to sample his latest brew and tell story over waffles. Ah...beer and waffles...we have yet to make such acquaintenses here in Minneapolis.

But such warm memories, and thoughts of long cold nights ahead, planted the yeast notion in my head. Along with the spicy Thai and Indian cookbooks, "The Baker's Apprentice" and "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" made it into our arms...both highly recommended by our culinary friend. And both an excellent basis...a jumping point.

I've been itching to try my hand at raised baked goods for a while. And home brewing? While that may be a bit down the road yet, but we have ample space to try it in, for once. And the equipment to start it up is hardly expensive. In the long run it's certainly cheaper than buying cases of beer. And often more tasty. With the occasional bomb of course.

However, we do still have an ample supple left over from the wedding, despite our attempts to pawn the brew off on others...

I'd imagine once word got out that Ross and I had a small batch of craft beer fermenting, the lack of friend or acquaintances would fast resolve itself as well...