Brew Day #5 - Getting My Feet Wet

Brew Day #5 was held this past weekend, and hosted by our friend KC Hophead.  Not only was he a gracious host, he helped out first time brewers get their feet wet.  Including me.

There was a primary theme of British beers, but there was also a secondary theme of hazing the newbies.  "What, you didn't bring the Re-Oxygen-ator?"  It's cool, a right of passage kind of thing.

As I was reminded many times throughout the day, sanitation is key. I started out scrubbing a kettle Hophead let me borrow. Next step was to get some water boiling, and as you can see it's a team effort.

I am going for an ESB style, but with an added bonus of fresh hops. My friend grew some on her farm this year and offered to contribute. Kick ass! The smell from the hops was heavenly. I couldn't wait to drop them in the pot.

For extra beer mojo, I was drinking Fuller's ESB. I hope the Beer Gods were satisfied.
We got the first boil up to the right temp so it was time to steep the crystal malts for 15 minutes. Already it was smelling really good. After another boil, I added in the extract. I used a Nut Brown Ale extract, which tasted like chocolate straight from the can. I would pour that on my pancakes.

With the extract added it was time to get back up to a boil again, but it also must have been time to sacrifice more to the Beer Gods. The propane started acting up and wasn't burning as hot as we would like it too. We tried switching out the tanks only to determine it must have been something with the regulator.

We did get the fire going hot enough to get a mild boil. Time to put the hops in. One thing that surprised me was how light the hops flowers were. I guess when I hear hop cones, I'm thinking sort of like a pine cone. Nope. This bag only weighed about 3-4 oz.

That hop bag was so light, I was actually having a little trouble getting it to submerge. I had to keep poking at it with the paddle. With about 15 minutes left in the boil, I added an oz of Cascade hops pellets to add some aromatic bittering.

With the last boil coming to an end, we dropped a copper coil into the kettle. Water will go through the tubing to help cool off the wort (unfermented beer). Someone was also telling me that the copper also helps pull other impurities out of the mix.

It didn't take very long for the wort to cool down to the right temperature. More than once KC Worthog stopped me from doing something stupid. Since the liquid is no longer boiling it would be more susceptible to infection from unsanitized equipment. I would have stuck my hand into it without even thinking if it wasn't for her.

It was now time to transfer to the fermentation bucket. I tossed in the yeast and sealed the bucket with an air lock. I guess my bucket isn't as fancy as a glass carboy, but it will do for a first try. If you are looking for a Christmas gift for me, a carboy would be nice! Hell, there's a ton of other little doo-hickies and gadgets that are out there. Where is that Re-Oxygen-ator?

So right now my little experiment is sitting in my garage. Yeast is going to town from the way the air-lock is bubbling. In a few weeks I'll be bottling, and I really can't wait. This was all really exciting. I'm sure I looked like a nervous wreck during the whole process. Absolute Deer-in-Headlights I'm sure. Once again, I want to thank KC Hophead and KC Wort Hog for helping me out with my first homebrew.

Cheers and Beers!