Not to be outdone by Garrick's Hefe Weizen, I decided to make a bit of Scottish Ale this month.

There's a place here in Minneapolis called Vine Park Brewery, a decent little microbrewery... but its main income comes from people renting their kettles and making their own beer! They have a bunch of suggested recepies for you, so you pick one, boil it all up in a kettle, then place it in a keg to ferment. In 2 weeks, you come back to bottle it yourself.

Compared to making beer at home, you get better equipment, a brew coach to help you out, and your home won't smell like hyperactive yeast.

My dad and I went there 2 weeks ago to make beer, and split the end product. Last night I came home with three dozen 22-ounce beer bottles. I toyed with several different labels and ego-centric names -- Bexwiser? Bezzo Brau? Special Bexsport? -- but settled on the dignified "Huff Manor Scottish Ale." I printed up some custom labels, and slapped them on the bottles after we filled them up.

Its pretty tasty... and at about $2 per 22-ounce bottle, its a pretty cost-effective way to get my recommended daily allowance of hops and grains... ;-)