First Brew Part III - tasting

Finally cracked a bottle of our first brew May 4. Surprisingly good! Tasted like a poor man's Orval or Duvel, moderate alcohol level, some sweetness on the finish, mildly carbonated, with some hint of cardomom/spice on the finish. Drinkable. So, with that under our belt, on to the next beer.

Monday 5/18 we brewed an ESB style beer. Started by steeping some English dark crystal and dark carastan grain, then this time used a malt extract rather than the dried extract. Much cleaner and swifter process this time around. Tuesday it was bubbling madly through the airlock, today not so mad but still bubbling well. I'm optimistic. Bottling in about 10 days I expect. Then two weeks before sampling. This process is difficult for those who demand immediate gratification (like me).

First Brew Part II - Bottling

Last Sunday was time to bottle our first beer. After sterilizing the bottling bucket, hoses, racking cane, bottles, caps, etc., put the carboy of beer on a high metal table, with the bottling bucket on a stool below. The instructions say to put the racking cane in the carboy, fill the hose with water, attach one end to the racking cane, drop the other in the bucket, and voila, the beer will start to flow. Nope. Try again. Nope. Problem is I can't get the hose full of water, try as I might. I've got our friend Jeff holding one end under the faucet, and I'm stretching the hose out straight down to the floor, pinch it off when the water is running through all over the floor (finally got smart enough to put a pan down there), but still the dang thing is only half full.

As a backup (the book says only as a LAST resort), I decide to siphon the beer by sucking on the hose. To do this, you must sterilize your mouth by gargling with vodka. Not a problem, but the only vodka I have is in the freezer. So now I'm standing in the kitchen, gargling ice cold vodka. Good news is, I'm sure I don't have cavities.

Down on my knees, I start sucking on the hose until the beer flows. Can't spit it in the bucket, so have to swallow the mouthful of warm, flat beer. Several times I get the beer flowing, but then it stops. Mouthful after mouthful of warm, flat beer. But the great thing is, it tastes like beer!

Finally I call on my high school physics, and this time once I get the beer flowing I plunge the end of the hose into the beer in the bucket. Now we're flowing well. Have to hold the racking cane through the whole process, as the sediment is deeper than the end cap on the cane...don't want all that sediment in the beer.

Bottling from the bucked proves much easier due to the nifty bottling cane. Attach the end of the cane to the hose, hose to the spigot, turn on the spigot, and then push the other end of the cane into the bottom of the bottle. Lift up, and the flow stops. My trusty assistant Jeff and I fill 2 cases of 22 ouncers, me bottling and him capping. Finally all done, put down in the basement to rest for a couple of weeks.

Next report - How does it taste?

FIRST EFFORT TO BREW

Having been gifted by my lovely wife with a beer making kit for Christmas, I finally worked up the courage to brew. Well, not really courage...we had a move and it's tough to lug around a 60lb. jar o' beer. Never tried this before, so armed with instructions from Home Brew Mart and my new kit, off we went. Oops, should have checked this earlier... hydrometer is broken.

Off Mary goes to HBM to get another one. Second oops, I really don't need a hydrometer immediately. Oh well, she'll come back with a growler of Dopplebock from Ballast Point, so the trip won't be wasted.

Sterilize everything, get a couple gallons boiling in my 12qt stockpot, here we go. Turn off heat, dump 3lbs of malt extract into the pot. Ouch, boil over. Not only that, but the malt has congealed immediately into this thick, tar-like cap over the water, so break it apart and stir to mix, making even more mess. Add the remaining 3lbs and repeat the process, including the mess. Turn the heat on, bring back to vigorous boil as instructed, dang, another boil over, extinguishing my flame. Re-light, bring back to a boil, add hops, almost a third boil over.

Now the flame is caramelizing the malt extract all around my burner...this will be a bear to clean up. This is all so tragic, but I'm brewing beer, so all I can do is laugh my butt off at how hopeless I am. Mary arrives with the growler, and we pour us each a big glass and laugh again.

After an hour of boiling the wort, time to add the final hops and turn off the heat. Move the stockpot of wort to the sink, and bathe it in cold water while Mary pours a couple gallons of cold water into the glass carboy which will be home to our beer for the next week or two. Add the wort, top off with cold water. Now pour us another beer. Set the air lock on top, but not sure I'm doing this right? Does the plastic cap go over the top while the beer ferments, or is the cap over the glass tube all I need. Call our friend Ray Taylor, an experienced brewer, to ask a couple questions.

After trying to explain what the air lock looks like to Ray, we finally decide we've done it right. Now I'm explaining what the beer looks like to Ray. He asks "did it do anything when you added the yeast?" Yikes, I totally forgot about the yeast. Good thing we called, it might have been hours before we saw our mistake.

Ray tells me I've got to get the yeast distributed. Dang, that'll be one heavy bottle to pick up and shake. Ray says just tilt it on it's edge and swirl it. Doh! Guess we won't leave it on that stool. Set it on the floor, get a good swirl going, put the air lock back on, and then we're off to clean up.

Now, here's a couple things I'd do differently next time. If I can find a cheap, bigger pot, I'll get one. I'm a vigorous stirrer, and I think this will save us mess. Next, I sure won't dump a whole 3lb. bag of extract in all at once. Trying to stir was tough and another contributor to the whole mess. Adding slowly, stirring at the same time, probably is the call here.

Second day, beer looks good, bubbles coming up in the air lock, guess we're fermenting. I'll post tasting notes in a couple of weeks. Big thanks to Cy at Ballast Point/HBM and Ray for their tips, advice, and support. And Mary, for the kit, her love and support, and scraping all that crap off the stove top.