Home Brewing Update

With the help of my brew guru, Alex, last night I bottled my first batch and brewed my second.

The first batch is a Grapefruit Honey Ale--grains, hops and yeast from Brooklyn Brew Shop, grapefruit from the market around the corner, and honey from Long Island. Turns out, through a combination of boiling off a bit too much water and spilling some while "re-washing the mash" I don't have much to show for my efforts, volume-wise. Five-plus bottles instead of 12 (although you only see 4 bottles, those Grolsch bottles hold 16 ounces). Oops.

But Alex and I tasted it before bottling it and Alex seemed rather encouraged--the grapefruitness is certainly present. That made me feel better--I'd rather have 5 drinkable beers than 12 shitty ones. So, three weeks of bottle conditioning and we'll get to taste the fruits of my labor.

Since Alex was around to help me bottle (his gear was a bit more easy to work with for the bottling stage than that provided by BBS) I wrangled him into helping me brew. Bottling took about a half hour--brewing more like 4 hours.

This time it was a maple porter, all ingredients from BBS. Like night and day, this porter and that ale, figuratively and literally. The mostly dark, sweet-smelling grain produced a deep brown-black brew, esp. considering my super-hot stove-top ended up boiling off a lot of water, again. This time, Alex made the simple and obvious correction--add water to replace what I'd lost. Duh. This time I've actually got a gallon of beer to look forward to!

Once we transferred the beer to the glass jug for fermentation, we added the yeast and shook vigorously. Now it's nature's turn.

Gotta say, I'm excited for this porter. Alex's porter and stout were what convinced me to try my hand at this. Professionally good. Can't wait to try mine.

As Alex was leaving, he looked at where I was storing the bottles and the jug during their fermentation, shook his head, grinned, and said "This is how it starts." Kim, his girlfriend, then looked around the apartment, nodded, and added--with a wee hint of exasperation, not to mention relief that somebody else was getting roped into this: "Yep, first it's there and then some over in that corner, and then over there..."

Oh and don't worry, Alex and Kim didn't go uncompensated: theygot to enjoy some hits from Jenn's stash of People's Popscicles. These bad boys have been making summer bearable.

Alright, the next Home Brew Update will be on the business end--taste test time, baby!

Cheers!