Brewing Beer the OH GOD WHAT AM I DOING Way

Beer. That golden liquid that most of us have used at some point or other as a social lubricant or just as a tasty accessory to dinner. Have you even wondered where that amber liquid that comes in 6-12 packs in your local corner store comes from? Well this isn't it. It's close but this is a bit of a different beast. It is, however, my first time stepping up to this level of complexity with my own brewing so like any good blogger I documented the whole process.

First of all, the ingredients.

Grains


* 500g American Crystal Malt 70/80L

Hops


* 50g Galena Hop Pellets
* 50g Cascade Hop Pellets
* 28g (1 oz) Williamette Hop Pellets

Extract (the sugers)


* 3.3 lbs (1 can) Black Rock Amber Malt
* 500g Spray Malt light
* 1 kg Muntons Beer Kit Enhancer

Other

* 11g Nottingham Yeast


My process was cribbed and adapted from two sources. The recipe I had initially planned on following was Pirate's Heart (sic) from TastyBrew and my go-to source for all brewing knowledge is Bodensatz. The rest is me freaking out about how far I've deviated from the recipe and making due with whatever I have. So lets get started!

Grain

This is pretty much the easiest way of using grain in your brew. The idea is that you keep it in a pot of water that is still in pre-boil for about half an hour. You've got to watch it like a hawk but all you need to do is crush your grain (i had it done in store) and throw your grain in a bag then in the pot.



Appreciate as your house starts to smell like breakfast.

If you need inspiration, crack open your own beer! In time you will have your own bucket of suds at half to 3/4 the price! If that's not motivation, I don't know what is!



After the grains have steeped for long enough, take out the grain bag and put it aside (you're done with it). Now you have a pot of grain water that you're going to want to bring to a boil. The recipes I wanted to follow called for a 3+ gallon pot but I didn't have one. Keep in mind that if you don't have one, be prepared to stare at the pot for the rest of the cooking. I had to remove some liquid at a point because it was about to boil over and make for one annoying cleaning session. Once you've hit a boil, leave it there for a minute or 5 then remove it from heat. Now is the time to add all your extracts or whatever sugar you're using. I'm using a LOT of sugar, which should translate to a higher alcohol content, so my pot increased by about 3 liters (hence having to move out a little liquid).

Hops

You're about halfway there at this point. Find a temperature where you're at a nice easy boil but not too vigorous. The hops are going to make it foam considerably so if you're close to boiling over keep your eye on it as much as possible.



Hops need to be added according to a certain time-frame. You'll be boiling it for an hour and some go in earlier than others. My schedule ended up being as follows: 1 oz Galena w. 60 minutes left, 1 oz Willamette w. 20 mins, 1 oz Galena & 1 oz Cascade w. 5 minutes left.

Finishing

As you're getting close to completing your wort (what all the stuff in the pot is called) you can choose to rehydrate your yeast. Yeast is your friendly fungal micro-organism that is the real star behind beer brewing. You'll usually get it in dried form so to improve its performance and reduce the chance of it dying of temperature shock you can pop it in a glass with some warm water to get it working before you add it to the wort.



Don't forget the wort because seriously, this stuff foams up FIERCE.



Once the hops have been boiled you're almost done. You should try to get the wort down to room temperature before continuing. I used a sink full of cold water but there are other methods that are faster. Add some water (4-5 liters in my case) to your sanitized bucket (if you don't know the importance of sanitizing your brewing equipment you shouldn't be making beer) and add the wort.





Mmmm.



Top the bucket up with water, 23 liters is the usual mark.



Now you've got to stir the hell out of this stuff.



It's good at this point to get a hydrometer reading (if you have one)to see what you're going to be working with. I think my hydrometer might be kind of broken or else I really screwed something up because this should be MUCH higher (1.075 is what I thought it would be close to)



Add the yeast you souped up earlier.



Add a lid, put the bucket away. I use a semi-open fermenter for my primary period then rack to a second bucket after a few days. Also note that I've got the bucket in a tub. The yeast is going to go to town on all the sugar in the first few days and there's a real chance it's going to foam so much it will overflow the container.



That's the hard part. I'll change buckets after 5-10 days and transfer it into bottles about 2 weeks after that but I don't have much more influence over the process at this point. I'll try to keep this updated with how it's going but unless something goes terribly wrong all the interesting stuff is done with. This is a new experience for me so I'm excited to find out how all the extra work pays off.