“White House Honey Ale is the first beer known to have been brewed in the White House.^[1] The process began in January 2011^[2] at the request of President Barack Obama who purchased the homebrewing kit using his personal funds.^[3] It includes a pound of honeycollected from beehives on the South Lawn.^[4] The chefs at the White House are said to use “traditional methods” to brew the beer, before it is bottled and labelled with a customized logo. The logo features a line drawing of the White House on a maroon background encircled in yellow.^[5]”

White House Honey Ale – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

“In 2011, craft brewers represented 5.68 percent of volume of the U.S. beer market, up from 4.97 in 2010, with production reaching 11,468,152 barrels. Additionally, the BA estimates the actual dollar sales figure from craft brewers in 2011 was $8.7 billion, up from $7.6 billion in 2010. Increased retails sales represented 9.1 percent of the $95.5 million dollar U.S. beer market. ”

http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/craft-beer-breaks-the-5-pint-glass-ceiling/

” Esters in home brew beer can be both a blessing and a curse. Ester (a fruity flavor) can be highly desirable in many English ales or Bavarian Weizen, but can also be a curse in other styles like lager. This week we take a look at esters in beer and what you can do about it.”

http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2012/03/07/esters-in-beer-brewing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BeersmithcomHomeBrewingBlog+%28BeerSmith.com+Home+Brewing+Blog%29

Here are a couple gifts I received from the F-i-L.  He likes to support the brewing hobby.  Probably because I bring him beer.

I am happy to have them both.  The rake because I have been using my wife’s plastic wine spoon for far too long.  I have pretty much destroyed it and need to buy her another.  This rake will make it much easier to stir the mash.

The false bottom will replace the stainless braid I have been using.  The braid works great and have never had a stuck sparge with it, even with the pump wide open.  The down side is when I stir the mash, I get the previously mentioned spoon caught in the braid and pull it off the bottom.  I am hoping that the false bottom will stay in place when I accidentally hit it.

This is a temperature control I bought from Amazon manufactured by Control Products.  (Link)  It is a dual stage high voltage control.  Dual stage meaning it will control an outlet for both heating and cooling.  High voltage meaning 120 to 240 volts AC.

I had to buy a few things to complete the project.  I had to get a male plug, some 12 guage wire, a 20 amp outlet, an outlet box, a wall plate, and a couple conduit fittings.

The first thing I did was to spray paint the box to change it from the galvanized look to black to match the controller box.

I will make more updates to this post as the project progresses.