Homebrew Supplies

Over the past year or so Craig and I have accumulated a good array of different brewing equipment.  Chris has bought several kits as well.  Chris, the budding accountant in the house, put together a QuickBooks file for us so we can track our expenses.  Maybe one day if we pursue this gig professionally this could come be very useful.

There are several sites that we frequent, including:

http://monsterbrew.com/
http://www.homebrew4less.com/
http://www.brewersbestkits.com/
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/
http://www.annapolishomebrew.com/
http://www.mdhb.com/
http://www.realbeer.com/index.php
http://beeradvocate.com/
http://www.highgravitybrew.com/Index.asp

In the DC area there are 3 homebrew shops: one in Columbia, MD; one in Falls Church, VA; and one in Annapolis, MD.  We have not been to the one in Annapolis yet.  The Falls Church store had very helpful employees and it is right across from a Dogfish Head restuarant.  We obviously stopped there for some lunch and tasty brews.  The Columbia shop is probably the best one.  They also have very helpful employees and a lot of fresh ingredients.  When we make our first brew from scratch we will probably get our ingredients from here.  They have grains, malt, and whole leaf hops in addition to several different kinds of Brewer's Best kits.

We recently purchased a wort chiller, which has been pretty solid.  We've only used it for 2 brews so far but it cools the wort down very quickly and effectively.  At this point in our basement we have the following:

kegerator
mini fridge
large fridge
bottles
bottling bucket with spigot
2 glass carboys
1 Better Bottle carboy
5 mini kegs
3 plastic fermenting buckets
several stoppers for fermenting carboys/buckets
filtered funnel
thermometer
hydrometer
fermometer
large stirring spoon
2 large boiling pots
stainless steel strainer
a billion bottle caps
turkey basters
siphoning tubes

And there's plenty more to get.

Porter

7/13/2010

True Brew All Malt Porter

Start date: 7/11/2010                     bottle  date: 8/27/2010                    drink date:

BG: 1.048             FG: 1.015                             ABV:  4.33

Hop Bittering units: 5.5

Ingredients

1 can unhopped dark malt extract

2 lbs dark DME

8 oz maltodextrin

6 oz chocolate grain malt

1 oz hop pellets

1 pack of yeast

Process

·         boil 1.5 gallons water

·         Steep grains for 20 minutes

·         Add malt, hops, and maltodextrin to boil

·         transfer to fermenter

·         ferment for about a week, take hydrometer reading when fermenting is done

·         keg it

Comments

This was a standard boil process.  We made this on the same day as the Scottish Ale.  That was the 2nd time we've made 2 batches in one day.  It makes for a long, but fun day.  It was a dark, rich looking and smelling wort.  The fermenting started  a little slower than usual.  We noticed this with the European Bock and Belgian Tripel too.  Not sure if this happens with richer, fuller boils compared to lighter brews.  We are planning on transferring this to a secondary fermenter in a couple of days just when the fermenting finishes up. 

The Porter has been in the secondary for about 3 weeks now.   We are finally going to bottle it today.  We are switching it up to bottles instead of a keg to see if we're getting lackluster results due to the kegging process or due to our brewing process.  Not that this one example will give us a definitive answer.  We may have let it sit in the secondary fermenter a week too long, but it shouldn't be too big of a deal.  That's the good thing about a secondary fermenter- you can let it sit a little longer since it is not mixed up with active yeast and sediment anymore.

This was another mild success.  I did a comparative taste test with our Porter and a Duck Rabbit Porter and ours wasn't too bad.  Obviously the Duck Rabbit was very good and you knew right away that it was a typical porter.  Our porter was very drinkable.  It was very dark and tasted like a typical porter but not as robust and strong.

                

Honey Wheat

8/10/10

Listermann's Honey Wheat

Start date:  7/18/10                         Keg date: 8/18/10                            Drink date:

BG: 1.06               FG: 1.008                             ABV: 6.83%

Hop bittering units: 14

Ingredients

2 lbs honey

4 lbs wheat extract syrup

.25 lbs Carafoam

1 oz Liberty hops pellets- bittering

.5 oz Libery hops pellets- aroma

1 pack of yeast

Process

·         boil water

·         steep grains for 30 minutes

·         boil liquid malt/honey mixture

·         add bittering hops to boil (in steeping bag)

·         add aroma hops to boil

·         Transfer to fermenting carboy

·         ferment for 1-2 weeks

·         bottle

Comments

This was a brew kit from Bill Slagle's company, Listermann's.  The extract was a large bucket of wheat extract syrup combined with the 2 lbs of honey.  We had never come across a kit like this.  The directions also said to add the bittering hops in a steeping bag, which was a first.  This worked fine and I didn't notice any big difference.  It didn't prevent boil overs or anything like that.  The fermenting took much longer than usual.  The air lock was bubbling for 2 weeks, instead of the usual 5 days.  I don't know if this is good, bad, or neither.  But we will see.  We are going to bottle it soon.  We decided to go back to bottling due to our lackluster results kegging so far.  We have not really had a succesful brew since the last time we bottled, which was the California Common.  Our kegged beers have been drinkable, but nothing spectacular.  Bottling is a lot more work but we hope it helps produce a better end product.  I ordered 48 bottles online and they are ready to be put to work.

Well, we are stupid and lazy and kept putting off bottling the Honey Wheat.  We ended up kegging it.  We let it sit in the primary fermenter for about 3 weeks though.  I can't imagine that will help the taste.  The good thing is it is 6.82% ABV.  It is unacceptable that we let it sit for so long.  It's just laziness and that ain't going to cut it. 

It actually tasted okay.  Definitely one of our better kegged beers.  It didn't really have that syrupy, wort-like taste like some of the others.  Now I don't mean to say it was a complete success or anything.  People still weren't super eager to have a glass or two every night.

European Bock

4/9/2010

Brewer's Best European Bock

Start date: 3/17/2010                     Keg date: 5/1/2010                          Drink date: 5/15/2010

BG: 1.08               FG: 1.048                             ABV: 4.2%

Hop bittering units: 22

Ingredients

6.6 lbs Munich light malt extract

2 lbs Golden dry malt extract

8 oz maltodextrin

8 oz crystal 120L grains

4 oz chocolate

4 oz Carapils Dextrine

.75 oz bittering hops

.5 oz aroma hops

1 pack of yeast

Process

·         boil water

·         steep grains for 20 minutes

·         boil malt and maltodextrin

·         add bittering hops to boil

·         add aroma hops to boil

·         Transfer to fermenting glass carboy

·         ferment for 2 weeks at lager temps (48-58 degrees)

·         transfer to secondary fermenter and ferment for 3-4 more weeks at 35-42 degrees

·         keg it

Comments

We brewed this on the same day as the double IPA.   Everything went smoothly when we were cooking up the crack.  When we transferred the brew to the fermenter and put it in the fridge is when we ran into some issues.  The air lock was not bubbling, which indicates that the fermentation is working.  We didn't have a secondary glass carboy to use after 2 weeks, so we are going to transfer it to a new carboy we just got.  It has been 3 weeks.  We will keep it in the fridge for another 3 weeks.  We will need to take a hydrometer reading when it is done fermenting.  At that point we can keg it and let it sit for a month.  This batch may have been screwed up, but we will find out.  This is definitely the longest process for a brew yet, so we will have to be patient and hope it's alright.  I don't know much about bocks, but craig read that lagering at colder temps slows down the fermenting process, so maybe it'll be okay.  We could have fermented at ale temps, but since we had the fridge to use we figured we'd give it a try.

We transferred the bock to a clean secondary fermenter on 4/11/2010.  We put it back in the fridge and will let it sit for 3 more weeks.  We then kegged it in early May.  It's been sitting in the fridge until now, mid July 2010.  We just hooked it up to the keg and pumped some CO2 into it.  It should be ready in about 2 weeks.  This has been in the works since freaking February.  I really hope it's tasty.  It's only 4.2% ABV which is kind of weak for this type of beer, but considering we thought it was completely ruined I guess we can't complain too much.  I expect it to be dark, kind of sweet, and hopefully delicious.

The European Bock was a pretty big failure.  Definitely our worst yet.  It wasn't even really drinkable.  We stopped drinking it and eventually dumped  it out.  It was a sad day.  It looked amazing pouring into the glass.  It was dark with a nice head.  It smelled good with a sweet aroma, which is what it should be.  However, it was just too sweet tasting.  It had some carbonation, but probably not enough.    We originally thought we screwed this one up and I guess we did.  Of course, I have no idea what went wrong.  Back to the drawing board.

Belgian Tripel

4/12/2010

Brewer's Best Belgian Tripel

Start date: 4/12/2010                     keg date:                             drink date:

BG: 1.074             FG: 1.018                             ABV:  7.35%

Hop Bittering units: 24-30

Ingredients

3.3 lbs light malt extract

3.3 lbs Amber malt extract

3 lbs Pilsen dried malt extract

1 lb light candi sugar

8 oz maltodextrin

4 oz aromatiz grains

2 oz bittering hops

.5 oz aroma hops

1 pack of yeast

Process

·         boil 2.5 gallons water

·         Steep grains for 20 minutes

·         Add all malt, candi sugar, and maltodextrin to boil

·         add bittering hops and boil some more

·         add aroma hops

·         transfer to fermenter

·         ferment for about a week, take hydrometer reading when fermenting is done

·         keg it

Comments

This recipe called for 2.5 gallons of water to boil instead of the 1.5 gallons we had done previously.  We almost overflowed the brew pot because of this and all the ingredients required.  It was a lot of stirring to keep it from foaming and overflowing but after a few minutes it kept a rolling boil for the majority of the cooking time.  I screwed up the steeping of the grains by putting the bag in before the boil had stopped and the water had cooled down a bit.  Some grains came out of the bag.  Hopefully I didn't leech tannins into the wort and give it a burnt taste.  Other than that it was a good cooking session with more ingredients than we have ever used before, but not as much hops as we have come to like.  The beginning gravity range was 1.083 - 1.086 so I'm a little disappointed that ours is only 1.074.  Hopefully it's still a nice strong beer. 

The directions say you can ferment for a week and then transfer to a secondary fermenter for another 2 weeks before kegging it.

We kegged it and let sit for a few weeks in the fridge.  It is still sitting in the keg fridge and we will hook it up to the CO2 after we finish the European Bock.  This is supposed to be 7.35% ABV, which is by far our strongest brew yet.  Needless to say we are excited.  I've never had this type of beer so I don't really know what to expect.

The taste test reveals that it is average.  Belgian Tripels are supposed to be a little sweet and extra carbonated.   We got that part down, but it just doesn't taste phenomenal.  Maybe it's just because we don't know what to expect with this type of beer.  It's definitely strong though.  Not to the point where it is tough to drink, but you can tell it's higher in ABV than normal.

Scottish Ale

7/13/2010

Brewer's Best Scottish Ale

Start date: 7/11/2010                     keg date:                             drink date:

BG: 1.04               FG: 1.012                             ABV: 3.68  

Hop Bittering units: 15-18

Ingredients

3.3 lbs Amber LME

1 lb Amber DME

4 oz Crystal 60L grains

4 oz smoked grains

4 oz chocolate grains

1 oz roasted barley grains

.5 oz bittering hops

.5 oz aroma hops

1 pack of yeast

Process

·         boil 2.5 gallons water

·         Steep grains for 20 minutes

·         add malt to boil, then bittering hops

·         add aroma hops and terminate boil

·         transfer to fermenter

·         ferment for about a week, take hydrometer reading when fermenting is done

·         keg it

Comments

I was not here for the start of this brew as I was on my way home from Rochester.  Craig, Chris, T, and Scott took care of the boil.  Craig said this was the most grains we've steeped so far.  I'm not sure what effect that will have.  I arrived home when they were letting the wort chill.  We took the hydrometer reading and sealed the fermenter to let the yeast gobble up the nutrients.  This is supposed to be a fairly weak beer, but it was darker than I expected. 

The brew is in the keg now waiting to be enjoyed.  This could be the last one that we keg for a while.  We are planning on going back to bottling for a change.  We just have not had as much success as we thought we would with kegging.  It is much easier but we have not had a successful beer since the California Common, which was the last time we bottled.

The brew was pretty weak.  It had a similar syrupy, wort-like taste that most of our brews have had.  It obviously wasn't no Sam Adams Scottish Ale.  

Summer Ale

7/13/2010

Brewer's Best Summer Ale

Start date: 7/4/2010                        keg date:                             drink date:

BG: 1.052             FG: 1.018                             ABV:  4.46%

Hop Bittering units: 18-20

Ingredients

3.3 lbs Pilsen LME

1 lb wheat DME

1 lb pilsen DME

8 oz Carapils grains

1 spice pack- dried orange and lemon peel

.5 oz bittering hops

.25 oz flavoring hops

.25 oz aroma hops

1 pack of yeast

Process

·         boil 2.5 gallons water

·         Steep grains for 20 minutes

·         Add malt to boil

·         add bittering hops and boil some more

·         add flavoring hops and spice pack

·         terminate boil and add aroma hops

·         transfer to fermenter

·         ferment for about a week, take hydrometer reading when fermenting is done

·         keg it

Comments

This was a standard boil process again.  The new wrinkle was the spice pack.  It smelled delicious.  It was dried chips of orange and lemon peel.  We discussed adding real fruit to the boil, but we'll save that for when we create our own brew from scratch.  We don't even know if adding fresh fruit would work.  Research time!  After we transferred to the fermenting bucket we let it cool in the fridge overnight because it wasn't cooling down to 70 degrees quick enough.  Due to our brews being kind of weak so far we didn't add as much water to the bucket this time.  It's only a 4 gallon batch, but hopefully it'll be a little stronger.  Our specific gravity was above the listed range and it ended up being 4.46% ABV, which should be good.  After about a week we kegged it.  It is in the big fridge now waiting for us to consume it.  We obviously want to crack it open before the summer ends.  

This Summer Ale was another average homebrew.  It was definitely drinkable and refreshing, but not like a Sam Adams Summer Ale.  This average-ness is getting kind of frustrating.

Pale Ale

4/27/2010

True Brew All Malt Pale Ale

Start date: 4/21/10                          Keg date: 4/30/10                            drink date:

BG: 1.042                             FG: 1.016                                          ABV: 3.41%

Hop bittering units: 13

Ingredients

1 can Hopped light malt extract

2 lbs light dried malt extract

6 oz crystal malt grains

1 oz hops

1 pack ale yeast

Process

·         boil 1.5 gallons water

·         turn the heat off and steep the grains for 30 minutes

·         boil the wort and add the malt and hops

·         continue boiling for 45 minutes

·         transfer wort to fermenting bucket

·         ferment for about a week

·         take a hydrometer reading before kegging it

Comments

This was a standard brewing process, and another one that we did outside.  Chris helped out a lot with this one.  We let the grains steep for a little longer than usual, about 45 minutes, just to try and get as much flavor as possible.  I'm not sure if it will make a difference.  The boil was perfect.  It didn't foam at all.  We moved it to the fermenting bucket and let the yeast go to work. 

We hooked this bad boy up to the CO2 for about a week and a half.  It turned out alright.  I'm still not completely happy with our beer results.  They aren't strong enough.  They're not even reaching the level that is suggested in the range of the kits.  We're thinking this could be due to using too much water either in the boil or when we transfer the boil to the fermenting bucket.  Wendy's dad was in town for this beer.  He liked it but said it wasn't very cold.  I agreed with him because none of our keg beers have been that cold in the kegerator.  I'm not sure why though.  We didn't have that problem at the old house when we were hooking up Sam Adams and Magic Hat Kegs.  The seal in the back is fine with the CO2 tube going through it.  The temperature is set to 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  We just taped the door shut in case the door seal was letting cold air out.  We'll see how that goes.  Until next time, thanks for stopping by.

Double IPA

4/9/2010

True Brew Whiteley Series Double IPA

Start date: 3/17/2010     keg date: 4/3/2010          Drink date: 4/17/2010

BG: 1.04               FG:  1.01                       ABV: 3.94%

Hop bittering units: 50

Ingredients

Hopped light malt extract- 1 can

Unhopped extra light malt extract- 1 can

Extra light dried malt extract- 2 lbs

Crystal grain malt- 6 oz

Centennial hop pellets- 2 oz

Willamette hop pellets- 1 oz

Amarillo hop pellets- 2 oz

Cascade hop pellets- 2 oz

Fermentis US-05 Ale yeast- 1 pack

priming sugar- 5 oz

Process

·         boil the water

·         steep the grains for 30 minutes

·         boil the malt and 1 oz of Centennial hops

·         add 1 oz each of Willamette, Centennial and Amarillo to the boil

·         add 1 oz of Cascade hops at the end of the boil

·         fermented in bucket for 1 week

·         Dry hop the beer by adding 1 oz each of Amarillo and Cascade hops

·         add only 1/2 the priming sugar (~2.5 oz) when kegging.

·         keg the beer 1 week after that

·         wait at least 2 weeks before enjoying

Comments

We brewed 2 batches this day.  The european bock was the other one.  This is when I really started getting obsessed with hops.  We added so many hops to this brew and they smelt so damn good.  Our ritual now is to open the bag of hop pellets and let anyone around get a good whiff.  Everyone comes away smiling.  We have never dry hopped before either.  I'm not entirely sure about that process so I need to do some research, but hopefully it makes the product even more hoppy.   We then kegged it for the first time.  We used only half the amount of priming sugar, as instructed by the fellows at the brew shop in Falls Church.  We thought about force carbonating it in the keg, but we're in no rush.  We forgot to take a hydrometer reading though.  So we will have to take a reading before we drink, which may not be completely accurate.  It's a learning process and we still make some minor mistakes.  Sue us.  We kegged outside while we were brewing the red ale.  I had a Clipper City double IPA a few weeks ago and I can only hope ours is as good as that.

We moved the keg to the kegerator and moved the Bock fermenter to our new big fridge.  After about a week we were ready to tap the Double IPA keg.  The excitement was building.  We tapped it and let it settle for a bit.  Then came the disappointment.  This wasn't like when you're disappointed because the redskins traded away more draft picks or because with the picks they actually had they drafted some clown ass Colt Brennan.  We're huge fans but we don't have anything personally to do with that process or decision.  There aren't many things that you create yourself, put the hard work in, and see it all the way through.  At least not in our young, shallow, petty lives.  But this was one of them.  I was excited for the hops and the great tasting, strong beer.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.  It had no carbonation.  I thought it tasted awful too.  It almost tasted like the wort, but a little different.  Chris thought it tasted close to what he expected from a Double IPA, except for the lack of carbonation.  It was kind of sweet and bitter and had a bad after taste.  I'm not talking about like a bitter taste from the hops or something.  It didn't taste like beer at all.  We're not sure what went wrong.  It's so hard to tell; there could be myriad different reasons.  We're leaning towards either we didn't put enough sugar in it or the seal on the keg was not sufficient.  The guy at the homebrew store told us to only use half the sugar since we were kegging it.  We'll have to do some research on that topic for the future.  When I moved the keg to the kegerator fridge it bubbled a little bit through the seal.  I thought that was a bad sign.  If the seal was not very good and oxygen got in and CO2 got out then that could definitely be the reason for our bad batch of beer. 

We are thinking about resealing it for another week.  It probably won't help, but we're holding out hope that something happens.  I don't know how the fact that we've already tapped it will affect it if we unhook it from the CO2 now.  As I said before, we were very disappointed that this happpened.  We've only had 2 successful brews and one bad one now.  Obviously we have a long way to go to being respectable. 

We resealed the keg and pumped it full of CO2 for about 2 weeks.  This actually helped out a lot.  Once we started drinking it again it had a decent level of carbonation. It still tasted kind of flat and boring, but you could kind of tell it was supposed to be a double IPA.  It had a little bit of bite to it.  The more we drank it the more we thought it was serviceable.  But that's more likely due to our brains tricking us due to the repetition.  So it wasn't a complete failure, but we still weren't too thrilled with it.  Until next time, you stay classy. 

Brown Ale

4/9/2010

True Brew All Malt Brown Ale

Start Date: 4/7/2010                       keg date: 4/21/2010                        drink date: 5/5/2010

BG: 1.042             FG: 1.019                             ABV: 3.02

Hop bittering units: 5.5

Ingredients

unhopped dark malt extract- 1 can

dark dried malt extract- 2 lbs

maltodextrin- 8 oz

hop pellets- 1 oz

ale yeast- 1 pack

priming sugar- 5 oz

Process

·         boil water

·         add malt, maltodextrin, and hops to boil

·         ferment for 2 weeks

·         keg it

Comments

We did this on a wednesday night after our "temporary" day jobs.  It was relatively easy as we are getting the hang of the cooking process.  We did this one outside as well.  Everything was kept very clean by soaking in a sanitized solution and then rinsing in a clean bucket of water.  The fermenting process is going well so far.  We will keg it shortly. 

The keg process went as expected.  The one thing that was a little disappointing was the final gravity of 1.019.  This gives us an ABV of 3.02.  That is pretty damn weak.  We will see how it tastes.  I know this brown ale wasn't going to be super strong anyway, but the range for the BG and FG should result in an ale between 4 and 5%. 

As expected, it tasted pretty weak.  The flavor was decent and it was a nice dark brown color.  What we've been doing with the kegs is pumping a little bit of CO2 in the keg right after we seal it.  Then we let it sit for a few weeks, or until we finish the keg that is currently tapped.  We need another tap.  I got another CO2 tank but we don't have the equipment to hook it up yet.  When we used sugar in the kegs it wasn't carbonating enough so we stopped using the priming sugar.  Once we hook the keg up to the CO2 we let it sit for about a week or 2, usually just a week because Chris has the patience of a 5 year old with the green apple splatters.  We raise the CO2 level to about 10-15 psi.  This has carbonated the beer effectively so far.  Until next time, you stay classy.

Red Ale

4/9/2010

True Brew Red Ale

Start date: 4/3/2010                        keg date: 4/17/2010                        drink date: 5/1/2010

BG: 1.05               FG: 1.018                             ABV: 4.2%

Hop bittering units: 14

Ingredients

hopped light malt extract- 1 can

unhopped light malt extract- 1 can

Melanoidin malt grain

Hop pellets- 1 oz

Ale yeast- 1 pack

priming sugar- 5 oz

Process

·         boil water

·         steep grains for 30 minutes

·         boil malt

·         add hops and continue boiling

·         transfer to fermenter and ferment for 2 weeks

·         keg it

Comments

This was a standard brew process that we did outside for the first time the same day we kegged the double IPA.  This was also the first time we used Craig's heater.  It boiled faster and it was easier to control the boil.  We just need to get a regulator for safety reasons.  We fermented in a plastic fermenting bucket.  The fermenting has gone well so far.  We will keg in about a week. 

Kegging went well.  We've been having trouble with the siphoning of the beer out of the fermenting bucket and into the keg.  This time we used a turkey baster to suck the air out of the siphon tube.  This worked well enough to get the liquid to start flowing up out of the bucket and down into the keg.  We will drink in about 2 weeks.

The red ale was another relatively weak beer.  It tasted average, kind of flat.  Not that it wasn't carbonated enough, but it just didn't have a strong bite.  It was kind of a pale looking beer too, but I guess it was redder than any other beer we've made.  Until next time, thanks for stopping by.

California Common (Steam Beer)

4/9/2010

True Brew California Common (steam)

February 2010

BG: 1.048             FG: 1.012             ABV: ~4.725%

Hop bittering units: 22.0

Ingredients

Unhopped light malt extract- 2 cans

Dark crystal grains- 8 oz

Pilgrim hop pellets- 2 oz

First Gold- hop pellets- 1 oz

Lager yeast- 1 pack

priming sugar- 5 oz

Start time to drink time: ~2 months

Process

This brew involved our first attempt with steeping grains in a bag.  We had no problems with that, which was good.  Standard brewing process again: boil water, steep the grains for 30 minutes, boil the malt and Pilgrim hops.  We added the First Gold hops at the end of the boil.  Last step was transferring it to the glass carboy to ferment at 68-72 degrees  for a week or two.  After that we bottled and let it sit until March Madness started, so a little over a month.

Comments

This type of beer was a "steam" beer.  There are many thoughts on why it is called a steam beer, which you can find by doing a little research online.  It originates from the gold rush time in california, hence the California common name now.  Anchor Steam Brewing Co. trademarked the name Steam Beer, so California Common is the name for this type of beer nowadays.  We bought a 6 pack of Anchor Steam to compare it to.  Craig and I thought it compared favorably.  Not as smooth, obviously, as Anchor Steam, but a good homebrew for our 2nd try.  Some reviews thought it was too bitter.  At first I thought it didn't come out right, but the more I drank it the more I noticed the similarity to Anchor Steam.  I am still honing my beer tasting, smelling, and identification skills. 

Update 12/6/2010:  Looking back Craig and our roommates agree that this has been the best one that we have made so far.  We are on the grind to beat this performance.

All Amber Malt

4/9/2010

True Brew- All Malt Amber

Fall 2009

BG: 1.042-1.044                 FG: 1.01-1.012                   ABV: ~4.2%

Hop Bittering Units: 13.0

Ingredients

Hopped Amber Malt extract- 1 can

Light dried malt extract- 2 lbs

Hop pellets- 1 oz

Ale yeast- 1 pack

Priming sugar- 5 oz

Start time to drink time: ~2 months

Process

It was a pretty standard brewing process looking back.  We boiled the water then added the malt and hops, boiled that, and then added to the fermenter.  I don't remember any problems or issues that we had.  We fermented in a glass carboy in the basement for a week or two.  Then bottled and let it sit for about a month

Comments

Our first attempt at brewing was a mild success.  We forgot to take a hydrometer reading so we don't know the exact ABV, but after tasting it I would say it was somewhere around 4-5%.  It tasted good.  Just a generic amber beer, although it was more of a brownish-reddish color.  I don't know what beer to compare it to.  It was a 5 gallon batch that made about 50 bottles. 

It was a thursday night at the old house when we started brewing.  It took us all night.  We didn't go to bed until around 2.  Craig had made a spontaneous purchase of all the equipment the weekend before.  We studied up on the specifics and got to it.  I sampled it to my parents and they enjoyed it too.

The Beginning

Hello everybody.  This blog will be a journal of the journey that Craig and I are on to become experts in the craft of homebrewing.  We started homebrewing in September 2009.  We have made several "ready" kits so far.  Some good, some bad.  I will be posting the journal entries that I have been keeping of those past brewing experiences and adding on as we go along.

I don't know how this will turn out or where it will lead, but at the very least it will be a place to organize our thoughts and lessons learned.  Some friends and family may read along and maybe some other young aspiring brewers will find us on the internet and join us on our quest to live the dream.