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Hi there!

I’m slowly working towards some simplicity within the home, but hey! It’s a lot of hard work!

I love having a go at growing my own veges and always use herbs fresh from my garden. I try to plant from seed whenever I can and have learnt to save and share my own seed for the following year. I make Award Winning preserves and pickles; and my husband brews Award Winning boutique beers as well. I love to stockpile and try to limit quick trips to the shops. I dabble in bread making and enjoy making my own stocks too.

I enjoy feeding my family good hearty meals, nothing like those tiny restaurant stacks you have to look for on the plate. My husband maintains our vehicles and machinery and we both enjoy fabricating on a small scale mostly relying on metal & timber recyclers for any materials needed.


While I don’t always have time to reply to comments, I love reading them. I hope you enjoy your stay and I hope you learn something new because I love sharing what I learn, and I'm always looking for another new skill myself.

Cheers!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Award winning Home-brew

A few weeks ago, a lovely lady sent me an email regarding her working near the HR department within the mining department...we have had computer trouble back and forth since....with bad timing, as I never got to send you a reply...I'm sorry I haven't contacted you, and unfortunately I lost your email as we had to get a new motherboard for our computer.....Could you please send me another email if you read this......


Today's post is all about Hubby...I have to give my hubby a huge big plug..while he isn't much into all the work involved in keeping things simple, he sure does love the good food and all else that comes with the work I do. It takes a team effort to make a house-hold work. It doesn't matter who is part of that team, as long as you all work together and that includes the children, even from a young age....and you will find that within your own team, there will be different skills held by each member.....One of Hubby's many skills is making a good batch of brew.
First Prize - Bitter
While I can make fruit cordials, and Kefir fizzy, and Rhubarb Champagne...I don't have, nor do I need the skills of making beer. That's because my husband makes his own beer. Hubby has been experimenting with brew making for at least 20 years....with that comes experience! For the last few years hubby has been entering his beers in the local show with some very encouraging results.

Second Prize - Lager
Second Prize - Pale Ale
************************
Sponsors for the 
home-brew section for 
Dapto Show 2012
************************
Centre: Hubby with two of the judges
of the Homebrew Section
for Dapto Show 2012
LONGBOARD BEER
Longboard beer

********************************

Illawarra Brewing Company



What a lovely home-brew display at the Dapto Show


 ........and an even better display at home.....

Seeing the judging took place days before the show, we already knew in advance....and on helping Richard celebrate his birthday on Saturday at the garden course....Hubby gifted Richard with a 6-pack of the Prize Winning beer...which I'm sure he enjoyed....and I made him a birthday cake.

Here is a photo of the birthday cake I made for Richard...of-course it had to be garden related....lol


While we were waiting for the judging to finish and the presentations to begin....I couldn't help but wander a round the pavillion to look at the lovely dahlias which were entered.  I took many many photos..but here is just a small taste of what I saw. Aren't they lovely?







Have you ever made your own batch of brew? How did it turn out?

NOTE: Hubby is looking for some Hop Seed to have a go at growing his own hops....if you have any spare, and would like to exchange using a barter set-up...I would be ever so happy to chat with you.

12 comments:

  1. That is so neat! congrats to your husband! (and his brews look so good...)...the cake too! nice flower pics! love,andrea

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  2. Not a beer drinker, never have been but I understand the years of adjusting, tweaking and experimenting (not to mention sampling) that would have to go into making a fine brew. Congratulations to your hubby on his first and second (x2) places. By the way those photos of the flowers are simply amazing.

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  3. Congratulations to your hubby Narelle! Your award winning talents must've rubbed off on him! LOL *wink wink* My Nanna's favourites were dahlias and she had so many varieties. I always thought they look a bit 'straggly' in the garden but the most beautiful blooms.

    Anne xx

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  4. wow congratulations, my hubby makes his own beer, but just uses the kits.

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  5. Congrats to your hubby. I love dahlias, and your photos are just lovely.

    Gill in Canada

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  6. it must have been the week for winning lol congrats to your husband and his beer, i have a good friend and his father has been making his on beer for almost 40 odd yrs now and has it to a fine art. he always says the one thing not to forget is Raisins when putting down a batch. i have tasted it and it is a great drop thats for sure. back to the week for winning, my ma is in a Rose club and she just done the Kiama show and took out 7 x 1st places, 1 x 2nd, champion in 5 different groups and over all grand champion in show.
    P.S Narelle, i still have your jar or rose petal jam here that ma sent up for you and a jar of her mint jelly <<<<YUK !!! lol just shoot us a txt or email when you might like to pop around for a chinwag.

    Regards
    Lee

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  7. Good for you Andrew! Congratulations.

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  8. Hops grows from a rhizome not seed.
    what type of beer does he prefer as this will dictate the type of hops he needs ?
    We have 5 plants taking over our garden at the moment. Dug up one whole plant and gave it away and didn't so much as get a thank you ( which was all that we wanted) !!!

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  9. Hi I live in oak flats and my husband grows cluster hops and you can have a rhizome from this if you like once it goes dormant. I think that's when you harvest them. Let me know if you would like some
    Cheers kaz

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  10. Dee and Kazj: I would love to try growing ANY type of hops for my husband...they also make a great sleep pillow apparently. Surely there is some way to show some grattitude for such a wonderful offer. Please both email me regarding details..... npe09777 (at) bigpond dot net dot au

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