Bad Dog Brew

My hubby brews beer, makes wine and roasts coffee.  We can’t remember how many years ago we started this.  It started with a small kit that we got as a Christmas gift.  We made a few batches of beer and then decided to try wine.  We drank more wine than beer back then, so he started to do more and more batches using different fruit concentrates.  He’s done a few straight from fruit too.  He also blends some batches to make new concoctions.  Our most recent trip to the homebrew supply had me deciding he needs to try to make a cherry berry wine.  (The wine guys roll their eyes when I walk in.)  It’ll be awhile before I know if that is a good combo or not.  The wine that was the most fun to make was a wild grape wine.  It was fun because we spent a day at my parents house, along with our niece and nephew, and my dad, picking all the wild grapes that grow on his land.  It was a day I have fond memories of.  We did 2 batches of wild grape.  One we did the traditional way, add the yeast.  The other we let go natural.  The natural wine turned out superb!  The other is not bad, but it was neat to do a comparison and see.  Recently we’ve been drinking beer more, so he’s returned to brewing beer.  He made a coffee porter right before Christmas that is rich and roasty and oh so yummy.  The coffee roasting is fun, because the green coffee beans are fairly inexpensive so we can try some coffees we usually cant afford.  My favorites are Kauai Peaberry and Kona. 

The name Bad Dog Brew is in homage to our furbabies.  A few years ago I photo-shopped a label with the namesakes looking like they are happy side by side.  (They are good together, they just would never pose for such a photo.)  I gave him the label as a Christmas gift.  Its fun because I can update it and add whatever label info for all 3 things.    For Christmas this year, I made him a tavern style sign of Bad Dog Brew.  I printed out a picture of the label, cut out the dogs, collage glued it down on the sign and then painted the lettering and the foot prints.  I had really wanted to put an Est. date like you see on tavern signs, but like I said, we can’t really remember that info.  The sign now hangs over the door to our kitchen.  Its pretty neat to find versatile ways to use a bit of the same basic design.  Thanks for stopping by.