I have always heard the rumors that Asheville, NC is a beer Mecca. After a day or so there, I can attest that these rumors are all absolutely true. Upon entering the downtown area we found our way to two different speciality beer shops that both had a rather large selection of micro and high gravity beers. I left each shop with a box full of beer and will have to review them one at a time because to do any less would be a disservice to these magnificent brews. Along the way though we made a stop off at a local downtown brewery the Lexington Avenue Brewery, or Lab.
My choice at the Lab was the chocolate stout which poured thick and creamy with excellent head formation and retention. If you have ever seen a proper Guinness pour then you have seen the cascade down the side of the pint glass as the beer clears from a tan color to a deep black. The taste was full bodied, smooth and of course chocolately. My wife ordered the Oktoberfest brew which was also delicious. This brew was crisp and full of sharp wheat flavor but also managed to be very drinkable. This was probably the fastest my wife has ever downed a beer.
Day two of our trip was cut short by some thoroughly nasty weather but not before a stop off and a pint of Foothills stout. Now its confession time, I had no idea what I was ordering at the time, it was the only brew on the chalkboard that I didn’t recognize and therefore had to give it a shot. First off, I got a rich coffee flavor and aroma, the drink was smooth and robust but not aggressively so. I would find out, thanks to Google of course, that what I got was from a different North Carolina brewery and their Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout. This was the kind of brew that left me wanting more from that brewery so it succeeded in its goal and maybe Winston-Salem, NC needs to be added to the list of destinations.
With all that said a trip back to Asheville is on the agenda already, with so many fine breweries in the area there is just no way we can resist the opportunity to have finely crafted brews with such a relatively short drive.
Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Main Line Porter Update
The Main Line Porter batch started on the 14th of November and was racked to the secondary on the 21st. The γg of the batch on racking was 1.018. This batch sat in the secondary for an additional 7 days before bottling on the 28th with a γg of 1.010. This batch was a little different too when it came to the bottling. We bulk primed this batch using ¼ cups of molasses and ¾ cups of honey which was heated to a boil in 2 cups of water.
The taste of the sample batch I had at bottling was rich and chocolately. It's supposed to be cold this week so it might be the perfect time to get some into the fridge and see how it goes.
The taste of the sample batch I had at bottling was rich and chocolately. It's supposed to be cold this week so it might be the perfect time to get some into the fridge and see how it goes.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
English Brown Ale
After my recent taste and experience with brewing on a full moon, I simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to brew again the next time time a full moon came around. Such a night came around this past Sunday. My last full moon brew session went late into the night and I didn’t want to be up all night before work, so I decided to take a different route with this brew and we will just have to wait and see how it turns out.
This recipe is a pretty basic dry malt extract English Brown Ale that is relatively light on the hops.
Recipe:
Amber DME - 5 lbs
Speciality Malts:
English Chocolate Malt - 1 cup
Crystal 120L - 2 cups
Hops:
Fuggle 4.0 α - 1.75 oz (60 minutes)
Fuggle 4.1 α - 0.5 oz (2 minutes)
The process for this was similar, yet different, so it bears repeating here. I dissolved the DME into 2 gallons of warm water over a 20 minute span. After the DME was fully dissolved, I placed the specialty malts into a muslin bag and lowered into the brew pot. Heated the brew to 150 degrees Fahrenheit and held for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I increased the heat to boiling and removed the malts. I placed the bittering pellet hops into a nylon bag in the brew pot and placed the grain bag into a strainer over the brew pot to strain out all of that malty flavor. Thirty-five (35) minutes into the boil I added the whirlfloc tablet and continued the boil for a further 25 minutes, adding the whole leaf fuggle hops in a muslin bag for the last 2 minutes of the boil.
When the boil was finished, I cooled the wort using a coiled wort chiller, this time I left the bags of hops in the wort during the cooling process. I cooled the wort down to 150 degrees Fahrenheit and added 2 gallons of cool water into the primary bucket. Placing the strainer over the primary bucket, I poured the wort into the primary slowly allowing the bags of hops to drop into the strainer but not into the primary. I pressed the liquid out of the hop bags and filled the primary up to 5 gallons.
Here is my next big departure from previous procedure: I placed the lid on the primary and sealed the primary with an airlock without pitching the yeast. Since I did this brew in the afternoon and this was my full moon brew, I decided ahead of time that the most important part for making this a full moon batch was to pitch the yeast after dark. With the primary locked, I activated the liquid Wyeast packet and waited until dark. I locked the primary at 3 pm and finally pitched the yeast at 7:20 pm. The initial γg of my brew was 1.042, just slightly higher than the target γg of 1.038 for a basic mild English brown ale.
On a completely unrelated note, I realized for the first time during this batch that Wyeast, my favorite liquid yeast to date, is produced in Hood River, Oregon. So another shout out for my northwestern brethren.
I checked the brew first thing in the morning, it was insanely early so I will spare you with the time, but fermentation had not yet started. When I checked again around 9 am, the bubbles had started to build and a couple of hours later they were moving pretty nicely. If memory serves me correctly, the last brew was already fermenting very actively 9 hours after pitching the yeast but since the γg of that brew was almost 0.02 higher than this batch, that could be a factor playing into how active the fermentation is shortly after pitching. We’ll continue to track the fermentation progress and hopefully will be ready to rack into the secondary early again with this batch.
This recipe is a pretty basic dry malt extract English Brown Ale that is relatively light on the hops.
Recipe:
Amber DME - 5 lbs
Speciality Malts:
English Chocolate Malt - 1 cup
Crystal 120L - 2 cups
Hops:
Fuggle 4.0 α - 1.75 oz (60 minutes)
Fuggle 4.1 α - 0.5 oz (2 minutes)
The process for this was similar, yet different, so it bears repeating here. I dissolved the DME into 2 gallons of warm water over a 20 minute span. After the DME was fully dissolved, I placed the specialty malts into a muslin bag and lowered into the brew pot. Heated the brew to 150 degrees Fahrenheit and held for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I increased the heat to boiling and removed the malts. I placed the bittering pellet hops into a nylon bag in the brew pot and placed the grain bag into a strainer over the brew pot to strain out all of that malty flavor. Thirty-five (35) minutes into the boil I added the whirlfloc tablet and continued the boil for a further 25 minutes, adding the whole leaf fuggle hops in a muslin bag for the last 2 minutes of the boil.
When the boil was finished, I cooled the wort using a coiled wort chiller, this time I left the bags of hops in the wort during the cooling process. I cooled the wort down to 150 degrees Fahrenheit and added 2 gallons of cool water into the primary bucket. Placing the strainer over the primary bucket, I poured the wort into the primary slowly allowing the bags of hops to drop into the strainer but not into the primary. I pressed the liquid out of the hop bags and filled the primary up to 5 gallons.
Here is my next big departure from previous procedure: I placed the lid on the primary and sealed the primary with an airlock without pitching the yeast. Since I did this brew in the afternoon and this was my full moon brew, I decided ahead of time that the most important part for making this a full moon batch was to pitch the yeast after dark. With the primary locked, I activated the liquid Wyeast packet and waited until dark. I locked the primary at 3 pm and finally pitched the yeast at 7:20 pm. The initial γg of my brew was 1.042, just slightly higher than the target γg of 1.038 for a basic mild English brown ale.
On a completely unrelated note, I realized for the first time during this batch that Wyeast, my favorite liquid yeast to date, is produced in Hood River, Oregon. So another shout out for my northwestern brethren.
I checked the brew first thing in the morning, it was insanely early so I will spare you with the time, but fermentation had not yet started. When I checked again around 9 am, the bubbles had started to build and a couple of hours later they were moving pretty nicely. If memory serves me correctly, the last brew was already fermenting very actively 9 hours after pitching the yeast but since the γg of that brew was almost 0.02 higher than this batch, that could be a factor playing into how active the fermentation is shortly after pitching. We’ll continue to track the fermentation progress and hopefully will be ready to rack into the secondary early again with this batch.
Christmas Stout Update
We bottled the Christmas Stout on October 31st, which was only 8 days after pitching the yeast into the primary and much sooner than usual for me. The readings on bottling day were almost right on target.
γg = 1.020
% Al/V = 2.5%
Balling = 5
After 10 days of bottle conditioning, we finally cracked it open for the first taste. For me the stout flavor comes through as the most pronounced flavor. It has that same classic stout bitterness with a little bit of the spice flavor that we used as part of the boil. My wife thinks it has more of the spicy flavor, despite using nearly the same blend as the pumpkin hefeweizen. The stout bitterness probably brings the flavors out a little more.
γg = 1.020
% Al/V = 2.5%
Balling = 5
After 10 days of bottle conditioning, we finally cracked it open for the first taste. For me the stout flavor comes through as the most pronounced flavor. It has that same classic stout bitterness with a little bit of the spice flavor that we used as part of the boil. My wife thinks it has more of the spicy flavor, despite using nearly the same blend as the pumpkin hefeweizen. The stout bitterness probably brings the flavors out a little more.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Monkey on the Main Line Porter
Another Sunday afternoon, another beautiful day for brewing. Today’s brew is recipe I found from my favorite (mostly because the ship really fast) brewery supply store. They call it Monkey on the Main Line Porter. I am sure it is intended to closely resemble some major micro brew variety but I cannot figure out which one it is. For this brew I am incorporating honey (Florida Orange Blossom Honey) and molasses (backstrap molasses). I elected to treat them the same as the base malts vice the specialty malts.
Recipe:
Amber DME - 2 lbs
Dark DME - 4 lbs
Backstrap molasses - 8 oz
Florida Orange Blossom honey - 8 oz
Specality Malts
English Chocolate Malt - 3 cups
Crystal 120L - 3 cups
Hops
Palisades 6.7 α (bittering) - 1.75 oz (60 minutes)
Cascade 5.8 α (flavoring) - 0.5 oz (15 minutes)
Fuggles 4.1 α (aromatic) - 0.5 oz (2 minutes)
This batch started with 2 gallons of tap water and the 6 lbs of DME in the brew pot. I started heating the brew pot very slightly as I warmed the mixture of molasses and honey allowing it to pour easier (30 seconds in the microwave). I’d still recommend a spatula of some kind for scooping the remaining mixture into the brew pot. I say this only because half way through watching me struggle with my spoon, my wife brought one out to me so I could get the rest of it out without hurting myself. After the DME fully dissolved I made sure to rub my spoon against the bottom of the brew pot to ensure there wasn’t a heavy amount of honey/molasses caked onto the bottom of the brew pot. I added the bag (I use a combination of nylon and muslin bags based on whichever is easiest at the time) of specialty malts and heated to about 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. Following that was another slow approach to boiling (approximately 20 minutes) and then I pulled the malts and added the bittering pellet hops. Even though they were in pellet form I went with a nylon bag this time to hopefully reduce the amount of filtering I need to do once the process is completed. When I pulled the malts from the wort I again placed them into a strainer directly over the brew pot, this not only keeps more heat in (increased efficiency is always good stuff) but it allows the malts to drain over the remainder of the boil and make sure I get all the good stuff into my beer and not in the garbage.
About 35 minutes into the boil I added a whirfloc tablet to help with clearing of the brew. Ten minutes later was the Cascade whole hops followed by the Fuggles whole hops with 2 minutes left in the boil. For this brew I took the brew pot off the heat, discarded the malts (they had been draining and I had been pressing them for the whole hour of boiling until almost no liquid pooled at all) and placed the hops one by one into the strainer. Still holding the strainer over the brew pot, I slid the cooling coil into the wort, attaching one end to a garden hose I ran it for about 10 minutes cooling the brew rapidly. I filled my primary up to approximately 2 gallons from the outlet of the cooling coil. I waited a couple of minutes before starting to fill the primary to both reduce the outlet temperature of the cooling coil hose but also ensure any impurities were flushed out completely. I find it helpful to move the coil around every minute or so while the beer is cooling, since the beer isn’t moving at this point there is a tendency for the coil to reach equilibrium with the liquid in contact with the coil surface. Without cooling the bulk liquid and moving the coil slightly, you can feel the drastic changes in outlet temperature and thereby do a better job of monitoring the heat transfer. Once the wort had reached a good consistent temperature I dumped the bags of hops out after more pressing to drain all the liquid. I placed the empty strainer on top of the primary bucket and poured the wort through the strainer into the primary, which had been filled up to 2 gallons already. I brought the total volume up to 5 gallons and placed the lid onto the primary.
I carefully brought the primary and took a sample. The target γg was 1.068 but I added less honey than the recipe called for (the recipe called for 1 lb and I used 8 oz). The actual measured γg was 1.080, slightly greater than anticipated but I also thing with the extensive straining of the malts that I end up with a slightly higher mash efficiency than their formulas predict. This batch used liquid yeast again that had sat out to activate for about 3 hours. I pitched the yeast into the primary, gave it a good stir to mix everything up and place the lid and fermentation lock onto the primary just after 4 pm.
At 8 pm that night fermentation was not yet active via bubbles but I could tell that pressure was building inside the primary. By 4 am the next morning fermentation had started and was on its way up giving me bursts of CO2 escaping from the lock.
Now, the least favorite part- the waiting. I will be closely monitoring the progress of fermentation with this batch (as with the last couple) and eventually will get around to analyzing all of my data that I will present here. With this being a busy week I am hoping to get to rack into the secondary by Wednesday or Thursday but I know better than to try and rush the process.
Recipe:
Amber DME - 2 lbs
Dark DME - 4 lbs
Backstrap molasses - 8 oz
Florida Orange Blossom honey - 8 oz
Specality Malts
English Chocolate Malt - 3 cups
Crystal 120L - 3 cups
Hops
Palisades 6.7 α (bittering) - 1.75 oz (60 minutes)
Cascade 5.8 α (flavoring) - 0.5 oz (15 minutes)
Fuggles 4.1 α (aromatic) - 0.5 oz (2 minutes)
This batch started with 2 gallons of tap water and the 6 lbs of DME in the brew pot. I started heating the brew pot very slightly as I warmed the mixture of molasses and honey allowing it to pour easier (30 seconds in the microwave). I’d still recommend a spatula of some kind for scooping the remaining mixture into the brew pot. I say this only because half way through watching me struggle with my spoon, my wife brought one out to me so I could get the rest of it out without hurting myself. After the DME fully dissolved I made sure to rub my spoon against the bottom of the brew pot to ensure there wasn’t a heavy amount of honey/molasses caked onto the bottom of the brew pot. I added the bag (I use a combination of nylon and muslin bags based on whichever is easiest at the time) of specialty malts and heated to about 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. Following that was another slow approach to boiling (approximately 20 minutes) and then I pulled the malts and added the bittering pellet hops. Even though they were in pellet form I went with a nylon bag this time to hopefully reduce the amount of filtering I need to do once the process is completed. When I pulled the malts from the wort I again placed them into a strainer directly over the brew pot, this not only keeps more heat in (increased efficiency is always good stuff) but it allows the malts to drain over the remainder of the boil and make sure I get all the good stuff into my beer and not in the garbage.
About 35 minutes into the boil I added a whirfloc tablet to help with clearing of the brew. Ten minutes later was the Cascade whole hops followed by the Fuggles whole hops with 2 minutes left in the boil. For this brew I took the brew pot off the heat, discarded the malts (they had been draining and I had been pressing them for the whole hour of boiling until almost no liquid pooled at all) and placed the hops one by one into the strainer. Still holding the strainer over the brew pot, I slid the cooling coil into the wort, attaching one end to a garden hose I ran it for about 10 minutes cooling the brew rapidly. I filled my primary up to approximately 2 gallons from the outlet of the cooling coil. I waited a couple of minutes before starting to fill the primary to both reduce the outlet temperature of the cooling coil hose but also ensure any impurities were flushed out completely. I find it helpful to move the coil around every minute or so while the beer is cooling, since the beer isn’t moving at this point there is a tendency for the coil to reach equilibrium with the liquid in contact with the coil surface. Without cooling the bulk liquid and moving the coil slightly, you can feel the drastic changes in outlet temperature and thereby do a better job of monitoring the heat transfer. Once the wort had reached a good consistent temperature I dumped the bags of hops out after more pressing to drain all the liquid. I placed the empty strainer on top of the primary bucket and poured the wort through the strainer into the primary, which had been filled up to 2 gallons already. I brought the total volume up to 5 gallons and placed the lid onto the primary.
I carefully brought the primary and took a sample. The target γg was 1.068 but I added less honey than the recipe called for (the recipe called for 1 lb and I used 8 oz). The actual measured γg was 1.080, slightly greater than anticipated but I also thing with the extensive straining of the malts that I end up with a slightly higher mash efficiency than their formulas predict. This batch used liquid yeast again that had sat out to activate for about 3 hours. I pitched the yeast into the primary, gave it a good stir to mix everything up and place the lid and fermentation lock onto the primary just after 4 pm.
At 8 pm that night fermentation was not yet active via bubbles but I could tell that pressure was building inside the primary. By 4 am the next morning fermentation had started and was on its way up giving me bursts of CO2 escaping from the lock.
Now, the least favorite part- the waiting. I will be closely monitoring the progress of fermentation with this batch (as with the last couple) and eventually will get around to analyzing all of my data that I will present here. With this being a busy week I am hoping to get to rack into the secondary by Wednesday or Thursday but I know better than to try and rush the process.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Brewing for Christmas - Christmas Stout
One of the biggest draws to most people to the art/science that is home brewing is the ability to experiment and create your own personal brews with your own personal flavors. In the spirit of that, the most recent batch will hopefully be like Christmas itself stood up and slapped you in the face. It is based off a basic Irish Dry Stout recipe that we infused with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
Additionally, this brew was a bit of an experiment. Several weeks ago my wife ran across an article online discussing a Belgian brewery that touted the effects and advantages of brewing on a full moon (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLNE69D0CI20101014). Their claim was that, somehow, the full moon impacted fermentation reducing the necessary fermentation time from 7 to 5 days. Reading up on several blogs about this provided what one can normally expect, a lot of people saying it sounded like junk science and that any gravitational effects from the moon would be minimal. From a scientific perspective I have to quickly agree, while tides are very clearly affected by the phase of the moon believing it would have a dramatic effect on the brewing process of a little 5 gallon container in my hall closet seemed a big of a stretch - they ARE claiming an approximate 28% reduction in fermentation time here.
With that said, there is no penalty for testing this theory myself. And my Christmas brew is not going to make itself. So the date was set for the next full moon (October 22, 2010 9:36). I have tested with some of the same spices before and know that the cloves give off by far the most flavor and aroma.
Recipe
5 lbs Dark DME (Dried Malt Extract)
2 cups chocolate malt
2 cups crystal 120L
2 cups barley
1 cup roasted barley
1.5 tbsp ground nutmeg
1.5 tbsp whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks + 2 tsp ground cinnamon (mixed into water slurry)
2 oz Kent 7.2 α hops (pellet)
Dissolved the DME in 2 gallons of water over very low heat. Once fully dissolved added the malts and the spices into the liquid and adjust heat to to med-low (approximately 120ºF). After 20 minutes adjusted the heat up to achieve boiling.
Additionally, this brew was a bit of an experiment. Several weeks ago my wife ran across an article online discussing a Belgian brewery that touted the effects and advantages of brewing on a full moon (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLNE69D0CI20101014). Their claim was that, somehow, the full moon impacted fermentation reducing the necessary fermentation time from 7 to 5 days. Reading up on several blogs about this provided what one can normally expect, a lot of people saying it sounded like junk science and that any gravitational effects from the moon would be minimal. From a scientific perspective I have to quickly agree, while tides are very clearly affected by the phase of the moon believing it would have a dramatic effect on the brewing process of a little 5 gallon container in my hall closet seemed a big of a stretch - they ARE claiming an approximate 28% reduction in fermentation time here.
With that said, there is no penalty for testing this theory myself. And my Christmas brew is not going to make itself. So the date was set for the next full moon (October 22, 2010 9:36). I have tested with some of the same spices before and know that the cloves give off by far the most flavor and aroma.
Recipe
5 lbs Dark DME (Dried Malt Extract)
2 cups chocolate malt
2 cups crystal 120L
2 cups barley
1 cup roasted barley
1.5 tbsp ground nutmeg
1.5 tbsp whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks + 2 tsp ground cinnamon (mixed into water slurry)
2 oz Kent 7.2 α hops (pellet)
Dissolved the DME in 2 gallons of water over very low heat. Once fully dissolved added the malts and the spices into the liquid and adjust heat to to med-low (approximately 120ºF). After 20 minutes adjusted the heat up to achieve boiling.
I try to slowly approach boiling giving my malts and spice more time to soak in. Once boiling remove the malts only and place in a strainer over the boil pot too allow excess liquid to drain back into wort and add the hops (used bittering hops only). Boiled for 35 minutes, added a whirlfloc tablet and continued the boil for an additional 25 minutes.
After the boil, I cooled using a cooling coil (more efficient that letting it sit or soak in ice water I think). Put about 2 gallons of cool water into the primary bucket then strained the wort into the primary. I have never read anywhere that discusses the straining of the wort into the primary but I’ve had good success with it, it probably reduces the overall hop flavor in the beer since they are removed and don’t sit in the primary or the secondary but I have managed to produce some very clear brews while still maintained good aroma and hop flavor. I bring the total volume of the bucket up to 5 gallons but running the last bit of water through the strainer with the remnants of the wort still in side to get that last bit of flavor I can before disposal. For this brew I used a simple Windsor dry yeast. I pitched the yeast at 10:20 so I missed the full moon mark by about an hour but still had almost a full night of full-moon activity ahead of me.
Initial Readings:
γ = 1.060 (this is a little higher than planned for the basic Irish stout)
First thing the next morning when I checked the batch I already had good fermentation underway, bursts of bubbles at first and by 10:00 AM the primary was bubbling out of the airlock continuously (I counted 160 bubbles/minute but at that rate the accuracy of my count is somewhat suspect.)
As with all brewing the chemistry experiment is commenced and its out of my hands now, I have done what I can, sanitized thoroughly and now all I need to do is wait and track my fermentation progress to see if there is any truth to the myth.
Update:
After nearly 36 hours in the primary almost all fermentation had ceased, over a 3 minute span there was not a single bubble released from the airlock. This isn’t just hours but entire days ahead of normal. I racked to the secondary and Beck tells me it already tastes good.
Initial Readings:
γ = 1.060 (this is a little higher than planned for the basic Irish stout)
First thing the next morning when I checked the batch I already had good fermentation underway, bursts of bubbles at first and by 10:00 AM the primary was bubbling out of the airlock continuously (I counted 160 bubbles/minute but at that rate the accuracy of my count is somewhat suspect.)
As with all brewing the chemistry experiment is commenced and its out of my hands now, I have done what I can, sanitized thoroughly and now all I need to do is wait and track my fermentation progress to see if there is any truth to the myth.
Update:
After nearly 36 hours in the primary almost all fermentation had ceased, over a 3 minute span there was not a single bubble released from the airlock. This isn’t just hours but entire days ahead of normal. I racked to the secondary and Beck tells me it already tastes good.
Intro
I thought about starting with something poetic, but that really isn’t my style. I have been what many call a beer snob since my first taste of draft Guinness. That was quite a few years ago, and I have moved far beyond Guinness in my choice of beer selection. From the northwest originally, I lived in a beer culture, Deschutes, Rogue, Full Sail, Widmer, these were all local brews to me. But after living in the southeast for several years now the ability to try new and interesting brews was waning, or so I thought.
For my birthday I received a gift, a Mr. Beer home brewing kit. It was a basic starter kit, nothing elaborate, though a few of the premium beer mixes were included. It made brewing not only accessible but very easy, the whole process took less than 30 minutes start to finish, and in 7-10 days I had 2 gallons of beer ready for bottling. It was all well and good, beer wasn’t bad either, but I knew there was more. Lying just beneath the surface was a nerd’s paradise.
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, by Charlie Papazian, this is not an idiots guide to homebrewing, this was a guide written by a beer lover for other beer lovers. Much has been written about him, but the first thing I noticed was his background - no degrees in fermentation studies here - an engineer, even better, a nuclear engineer. This wasn’t just hope, it was inspiration.
I brewed my first batch of real beer (admittedly from a pre-packaged kit) on April 11th, 2010 and haven’t looked back since. I have made a lot of mistakes along the way but to date haven’t ruined a batch yet. I’ve learned to be more and more obsessive about the sanitation, and gotten more and more adventurous with the spices. As of today I still have not made the leap to all-grain brewing but the day is coming.
For my birthday I received a gift, a Mr. Beer home brewing kit. It was a basic starter kit, nothing elaborate, though a few of the premium beer mixes were included. It made brewing not only accessible but very easy, the whole process took less than 30 minutes start to finish, and in 7-10 days I had 2 gallons of beer ready for bottling. It was all well and good, beer wasn’t bad either, but I knew there was more. Lying just beneath the surface was a nerd’s paradise.
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, by Charlie Papazian, this is not an idiots guide to homebrewing, this was a guide written by a beer lover for other beer lovers. Much has been written about him, but the first thing I noticed was his background - no degrees in fermentation studies here - an engineer, even better, a nuclear engineer. This wasn’t just hope, it was inspiration.
I brewed my first batch of real beer (admittedly from a pre-packaged kit) on April 11th, 2010 and haven’t looked back since. I have made a lot of mistakes along the way but to date haven’t ruined a batch yet. I’ve learned to be more and more obsessive about the sanitation, and gotten more and more adventurous with the spices. As of today I still have not made the leap to all-grain brewing but the day is coming.
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