The Beginning

For Christmas, I was given the equipment necessary to brew my own beer. Unfortunately I was not given the knowledge to know how to do it. So this will make this my first attempt at brewing beer. This was my first batch of beer. My attempt was guided by three sources: Charlie Papazian's book, "The Joy of Home Brewing," the instructions on the reverse side of the O'Shea's brew kit that I purchased, and a handout that was provided by O'Shea's.

Blind Pig - West coast IPA

SG: 1.066

TG: 1.013

IBU: 87

Ingredients (Clone)

Malt: Pale and Wheat Malt Extract. 6lbs LME, ?lbs DME. Cara-pils and Crystal malts. (Specialty Grains?).

Hops: Chinook, Cascade, Centennial Hops (Pellets). Boiling hops, flavoring hops, finishing hops, dry hops (2nd fermentation).

Yeast: Dry yeast. Powdered. Not "primed." Danish.

Irish Moss

Weather / Control Measures:

Brew Day (1/17/2010): Temp - High, 68. Low, 43. Avg, 56. Hum - Max 87. Min, 50. Avg, 72. 30.00 in.

B+1 - (1/18/2010): Temp - High, 63. Low, 44. Avg, 54. Hum - Max 89. Min, 58. Avg, 80. 29.99 in. No measures have been taken to control the temperature of the carboy.

Equipment:

Maybe I will post that later in my profile.

Process:

Brewing began mid-day on Saturday (1/17/10) and consisted of a lot of time trying to understand the process, purchasing ingredients, and then there is actually doing it. Despite the effort invested in trying to understand the brewing process, my process involved a second trip to the store, a big mess from a boil over, and skepticism. I guess I was expecting instant results, doubting my ability to execute the detailed instructions. Let's just say I am looking forward to drinking my beer and a second batch.

1. Clean / Sanitize - I cleaned and sanitized pretty much everything that I used. This probably wasn't completely necessary. Some how it makes sense to think of it as a "yeast infection." As someone other than myself said to me in response to this, "Do you think that's funny?" Well, yeah. But, it's also true. Cleaning and sanitizing are important. But more important is being sanitary. There are a lot of steps that can be taken to prevent an infection in your beer that go beyond using the right cleaner and sanitizer.

2. Yeast - "Bare" pitch. I did not rehydrate the yeast. Never baking nor brewing before, I didn't really know a whole lot about yeast. Turns out there's a lot to know. This goes for all the ingredients. But, the directions didn't really emphasize the yeast process. Do I proof the yeast? Liquid yeast? Or, can you just "bare" pitch? Aerate wort?

3. Preparation - Soaking malt extract in warm water.

4. Steeping - Soaked "specialty grains" in grain bag. In a separate pot (from the main boil), I boiled water, turned the burner off, let the water cool to 165 degrees, placed the grain bag in the water, covered it with a lid, and set a timer for 30 minutes. The ultimate "striking" temperature was a thought, but was disregarded as an unimporant consideration.

5. Boiling - Making wort. It would have been nice to be warned about boil overs. They are a pain to clean up. Next time I will do my best to use a larger pot. I think a 7.5 gallon pot would be nice (for a 5 gallon batch, maybe a smaller one could be used). Temperature also seems to be important. I don't know what the temperature was - that might be a useful thing to keep stable while doing the boil. I ended up using a second pot and then going back to a single pot about two-thirds through.

I started with water, added liquid malt extract (LME) and dried malt extract (DME), and waited for it to boil. There were large clumps of the DME floating around during the beginning and it seemed to coagulate with the LME. I think most of it eventually broke up. I pretty much added it all at once. I added the boiling hops once I got the boil over under control, adding a portion to each pot I had going, and then set a timer for 60 minutes.

After lowering the burner to keep the temperature under control, I combined the two pots back into a single wort. After 30 min I added flavoring hops. In 15 minutes I added the Irish Moss). And, in the final minutes, I added the finishing hops. (Next time, I will take the approach in the O'Shea's handout to turn the burner off, add the finishing hops, and put the lid on. You could probably even do this as it cools. But again, why rush?

Other than the boil over, boiling seemed to go pretty well. I think it would be better to have the capacity for more water, boil it first, then add the LME and DME slowly. At least not all of both of them at once. Don't worry = don't rush. Be patient.

The boil was exciting because of the smells of beers I have drank, realizing that an IPA is not just about the bitter hops, but with their balance with the sweetness of malt. Today (Brew Day + 1), I had a Coronado West Coast IPA and, for the first time, I recognized the distinct malt flavor more than the aroma of floral hops in a beer. Malt, hops, and yeast, I look forward to getting to know you better. It was nice to finally meet you. The excitement, joy, and smells were the best parts.

I tried to take a specific gravity reading of the wart before I poured, but I didn't really know how to read the hydrometer. Using the thief might have helped. I also think you are supposed to wait till a certain temperature, or account for temperature. I think you are supposed to measure after the water is added.

6. Cooling - I placed the pot in the sink that I filled with ice and cold water, in an attempt to cool the wort as quickly as possible. This took longer than I thought. I was definitely eager to get the wort into the carboy. I cooled the wort until it reached 70-80 degrees.

7. Transfer - Moving around significant amounts of liquid from one vessel to another isn't something that is ever that easy. My method was to directly poor the wort through the funnel and into the carboy. I then added room temperature water into the carboy to a pre-measured 5 gallon line on the carboy.

8. Pitch - "Pitching" yeast. It's something like pitching a tent. Or, not. I warmed the pouch of dried yeast in warm water. For the future, it is important to know what yeast is, what it does, and how it functions. There are liquid yeasts, dry yeasts, and different ways of pitching. Do you proof your yeast? I basically ended up just throwing my yeast in the carboy.

9. Fermenting - No control of temperature. I did my best to keep the carboy sterile, but there is certainly more I could have done. With a rubber stopper on, I rolled the carboy, shook the carboy, and expected action. Not so. At first I was skeptical, despite the reassurance of Charlie Papazian to just "Relax and have a home brew." In fact until this after noon (Pitch + 16 hours), I didn't see any signs of fermentation. As of now, there are signs of fermentation bubbling in the airlock and accumulating on the surface of the beer.

I am looking forward to drinking my first homebrew! I am also looking forward to a second batch, knowing that I will be able to make something even better.

Next up bottling.