It is Sunday, therefore we must brew...

The Beloved Husband was home for about three weeks - a pause between travels - and has been brewing up a storm! We have a mead percolating quietly away down in the basement (won't be ready for several months), and three beers now in the keg. Two have been pressurized and tapped and are truly DELICIOUS!

The one on the left is my preferred brew - it beats Guiness Draft over the head with a baseball bat! It's a Honey Brown Ale, and I like the darker, richer beers. The one on the left is an American Amber, to which we added raspberry. It's a bit lighter and less "chewy" but still delicious!

Lots of pictures, so I'm going to put the rest under the fold...

We've already removed the third beer, a raspberry wheat, from the fermentor and put it in the keg. We'll chill and carbonate it, and by next weekend, we'll have THREE yummy beers to choose from... Um, that is, *IF* we can refrain from guzzling down the first two ;-)

We got these kits from Northern Brewer (an excellent company - if you're interested in brewing your own beer, they're like a candy store for a sugar-holic), which has a large and varied selection of high-quality ingredients. They're far superior to the average "liquid malt extract in a can" kits you see in local stores.

This afternoon, my Beloved started on a a dark cherry stout (mmmmmmm!), which needs a cool temperature while it ferments; we figure we'll take advantage of our basement temperature before the ground really starts warming up. And, wow! Dark beer and cherries? You KNOW I'm gonna love that! The nice thing about the dark beers is that they're so rich and full, that you can sip on only one or two glasses all afternoon/evening (well that's all *I* can handle!). They're delish!

So here he is, adding water to the boiling pot (5 gallons), and I'll (maybe) add more pictures as he continues... (UPDATE: Um, well, I guess I did, huh? LOL)

That lower pipe is so that it's easy to drain the hot wort out, through a chiller (the Husband has the Therminator model, and it's VERY efficient!), and into the fermentor where the yeast will be added...

This kit

  

is very full featured, and included some black patent malt, which is placed in a mesh bag and steeped in the heating water to add all sorts of yummy fullness and flavor

  

In the left picture, you also see the chilling unit there in the sink. At the moment, he's got it hooked up to the pump and circulating sanitizing solution through it. You don't need to sterilize everything when you make beer - you just need to take all precautions you can so that the yeast, when you add it, is an overwhelming presence and able to win out over any small bit of unwanted contaminants which might be present. Basically, keeping your brewing area and supplies cleaned and using the sanitizing solution will keep everything safe.

Here's his pump set-up (the pump itself is that black thing in the middle of the picture)... Did you get the idea that he's living up to his nickname of Gizmo? That's my darling! His favorite motto is, "The right tool for the right job," and boy does he really live that, LOL!

The pump, however, really does help in getting that hot wort out of the pot, through the chiller, and into the fermentor in record time. Before you add the yeast, you want as little air mixed in with the wort as possible - now, once you keg it, you can be more casual about that - in fact, a bit of air mixed in will help with the beer's flavor - or so I'm told; this is HIS area of cooking expertise, not mine, LOL.

The kit also has some liquid malt extract, which is sort of a super-reduction of the "tea" made by malt and hot water. It's got the texture of molasses, so it's a good idea to warm it up well so it pour out of the container quickly. This container isn't very big, perhaps 4 or 5 cups worth..

The whole batch, when finished, will make about 5 gallons. That's a general range; you'll lose some liquid to evaporation as things cook, but then you're also adding liquid back with the liquid malt extract and some other ingredients.

Basically what you're doing is making a very friendly environment for the yeast to convert sugar to alcohol, and doing so in a way that the final ambrosia has layers of fullness, aroma and flavor which is also pleasing to your palate.

I can tell you, that I bet this beer is going to be AWESOMELY yummy!

Oh, and here's the yeast packet... It's got a bit of wort inside, and a pellet full of dormant yeast. You smack the packet to pop that pellet, and the yeast mixed into the wort and starts fermenting. In an hour or two, that envelope will be all puffed up by gasses released by the active yeast, and it will all be ready to pour into the cooled wort and begin the process of fermentation...

If you like beer, even a little, you might want to consider making some of your own. You really don't need all the equipment we have - it can be much simpler - and the end result will knock you off your feet with how delicious it is, and how much better than the usual diluted river water normally available in stores and restaurants. It's pretty easy, and only takes a little attention to detail and a bit of patience. Trust me - you won't regret it, and MMMMMMMMM!

Life is good, because God gave us BEER!

Comments

[Cao]

1.

I just love these posts describine (often times with great pictures like these) of the interesting things you folks are up to....!

[Cao]

2.

Let me try it again.

I just love these posts describing the interesting things you folks are up to! Particularly the pictures you are kind enough to include to help illustrate the narrative!

Okay, how's that.

[Kat]

3.

LOL, it's OK, Cao - I ***LIVE*** because of my spellchecker ;-) I'm glad you enjoyed this... You realize you're going to have to visit one day so you can sample these awesome brews, right?

[Cao]

4.

I quit drinking '92. But it would be great to visit with you one day, anyway!

[kate stokes]

5.

hi kat! lol at this post. how fun!

thanks so much for visiting my blog! i have been on yours before. your pic reminds me so much of my zoey. i will be back again.

[Isophorone]

6.

My father used to make his own beer. Then they made it legal so he stopped. ;) Capping the bottles is a lot of fun. Do you have a device that helps you do it easily?

When I was in high school, my English teacher wanted the class to do a non-fiction book report, and to discuss the subject, not just the book. So I found a book on beer-making and discussed the subject. The boys in the class LOVED it, but I could tell the teacher was just a bit ticked. She gave me a "B" and said my talk had too much "how to" in it.

[Kat]

7.

We do have a capper, Iso, but rarely use it, although it's quite easy. Since we keg and then force-carbonate, we get OUR beer in about 3 weeks (instead f 5, as you see on the kit box). Patience never was one of our virtues... ;-)

However, my beloved has TONS of empty bottles (gotta get the NON screw off top kind) - we even had a whole box or two (large boxes - bigger than the typical "book box") packed out when we moved from Chesapeake... I know also that he was keeping the Grolsh-type bottles with self-capping doohickey. But, again, we rarely bottle, so...

Hm. I bet that we could put the MEAD in those bottles, though!

[Isophorone]

8.

My father, being the careful chemist that he is, let it carbonate naturally and then bottled them. This was back in the 1970s, so the selection of craft beer bottles wasn't as good. I think he used a lot of Heineken and Becks bottles. He never had one explode, fortunately.

Capping was always a pain. It looked easy, but it was a wing-shaped capper that easily caused the necks of bottles to snap. We always lost a couple of bottles to the process (better than explosions, I guess).

I noticed your next post is a religious song that mentioned coffee. Is that a deliberate juxtaposition with beer? ;)