I love my girlfriends - past and present. They have been and are such a crafty and creative and intelligent and funny and empowered bunch of ladies. Together, we've donned high heels and fishnets and gone out on the town carrying on like the lusty ladies that we are; we've hopped onto bikes and ridden miles and miles, stopping every so often to drop into dark bars and sip girly drinks or guzzle beers; we've rolled sushi, folded gyozas, and baked everything from vegan cream-filled cupcakes to marzipan-covered princess cakes; we've organized charity events; we've built rockets and launched them into water towers; we've sewn and crafted, but also traded baseball cards and wrenched on our bikes; we've casually discussed all those taboo topics we're all super curious to discuss; we've hiked to the upper reaches of national parks in the winter and flown downhill on slip n' slides in the summer; we've helped each other get over bad relationships and we've shared the giddiness of meeting cute, new boys ... and this is just part of it! Looking back specifically at this last year, though, I really must thank all the women in my life for getting me through some very tough times...okay, and also my boys that are also a lot like girlfriends sometimes: Kurt, my Dad, Royd and Kevin...but to all you ladies (and girly-men) - relatives and friends and neighbors and sisters-in-law and honorary relatives, I am deeply thankful. I am in a much better place than I have been in a very long time, and I am not sure I would have gotten here without all your love and support and straight-talk :)

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On Monday night, Holly and Alicia and I finished up yet another female feat of which I'm mightily proud: we bottled the beer that we began brewing *last* weekend with Sam. We coined ourselved the Cycle Brewing Company and named our beer "28 Day Ale." Double entendre. Get it? We ride bicycles. It takes 28 days from bottling before we can drink the beer ... but also ... cycle, 28 days ... you get it :)

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This was the first time that Alicia, Sam and I had made beer (although Alicia grew up on a vineyard and had often made wine and hard apple cider), but this was Holly's 20th time or so. We decided to start off simple with a kit from the Oak Barrel in Berkeley. I bought the Nut Brown Ale kit, which came with 6# Liquid Malt Extract, Dry Malt Extract, Crystal and Chocolate Malts, Northern Brewer and Cascade Hops, Dry Ale Yeast, Priming Sugar and Irish Moss.

First, Sam crushed the barley grains.

And then we packed them into a giant teabag and dropped it into a pot of water to boil.

After some time, we added the malt extracts. Glug, glug. About one second after the below photo was taken, I accidentally dropped this bucket into the pot of boiling barley tea. Sorry, Sam! That was a really cute shirt you were wearing. Too bad I ruined it :(

After adding the hops, Holly (AKA "Strong Like Bull") transferred the mixture into the fermenting carboy.

I was really amazed at the stratigraphy of our creation! Really pretty.

We added the yeast, popped on a fermentation lock and let the brew hang out under Holly's kitchen table for a week. On Monday night, we started off by sanitizing our bottles in a bleach solution.

We also sanitized the caps in boiling water.

We first transferred the soon-to-be ale into a secondary container to rack off some of the yeast sludge that had collected at the bottom of the carboy. It smelled **so** good and so yeasty! Alicia and I were brave and tasted the yeast that had collected on top of the carboy - it was disgusting. Don't ever do that. Learn from us :)

The final step was the actual bottling. We siphoned the near-ale into the bottles, and capped them with our fancy $20 capper.

Now, all we have to do is wait! 28 days from bottling, on February 19th, we'll crack open our ale and celebrate our womanhood by drinking and cursing like sailors! Woo hoo!