Beer and Wine

OK, since my last post the homebrew club tasted my beer.  Those that chose to comment like it.  What else can I say? 

Now I'm switching to winemaking.  I bought two frozen juice kits from Universal Carbonic, the local homebrew/winemaking supply store.  One Italian juice (Lambrusco) and one California juice (Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend).  They won't be here until the beginning of November, so I'm doing the winemaker thing, collecting bottles by drinking store bought wine.

It's not that I've forgot about homebrewing.  I'm planning to get some bulk supplies to try and make my own recipes.  I'll probably also get a few more kits as part of my learning process. In the meantime, I'm drinking my way through the Full Sail Amber Ale Clone beer that was my first beer.  It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Poor will power

I couldn't wait the full four weeks to try my beer.  So I rationalized that I needed to collect intermediate data.  I've been drinking two bottles a week and it seems to be relatively stable.  It tastes a lot like an ESB (Extra Special Bitter) which is not bitter at all.  It's just weird terminology.  Next week is the big test, when the brew club tastes it and gives me its collective feedback. 

What ever the result, I think it's drinkable and will finish the two cases.  It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. 

I think I said that before.

Beer Hiatus

So now the beer is bottled and I have to wait four weeks to try it.  This is the downside to this hobby.  No instant gratification.

I did taste the beer as I bottled it.  It's similar to other microbrews that I've tried.  I'll take it to the next Berks Homebrew Club meeting and see what  feedback I get.

In the meantime, I'm drinking as much microbrew as I can, to get empty bottles for my next batch.

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

What's Brewing?

Well, I finally started my first brew.  It's in the primary fermenter now.  Somewhere around Friday, I'll move it to the secondary fermenter.

I decided to start small for this first brew and made an extract kit of Full Sail Amber Ale that I ordered from Austin Homebrew Supply.

I did have to steep some specialty grains in addition to boiling the malt extract and hops, so it was more than just a boil, but not a lot more.  By the end of an hour, I had 2 gallons of wort (non yeasted liquid)

Due to lack of equipment, I used a 2 gallon spaghetti pot for the grains and the extract boil, then diluted it with water in the fermenter.  To chill down the wort, I made up some sanitized ice bricks in some freezer containers the night before and then added them to the water before adding the wort.

To aerate the wort, I attached my DAN (scuba) oxygen bottle to a 6 inch aquarium stone and let the oxygen bubble through the wort.  I used my large wooden stirring paddle to keep the wort moving over the stone.

Next week, I'll publish an update and in a month, a full report including brew club feed back.

Tempus Fugit!

I hadn't realized how long it's been since I posted an entry here.  Is my life that dull or am I just that lazy. Don't bother answering that question, Mary.

I'm now getting ready to make wine and beer at home.  I made wine thirty years ago.  Some good and some bad.  Then I started traveling for work and I gave up.  So now I'm going to start again. 

When I researched equipment, I realized that wine and beer are similar in making.  The difference is that, with beer, you have to do a boil step before you begin fermenting.  This means extra equipment.  Then I attended a beer brewing event and saw about ten guys making beer.  Some did a simple extract kit brew, but others did an elaborate "all-grain" brew that requires a lot more equipment.  This looked like fun, because is represented an engineering design challenge. But then, the equipment cost quadrupled.

So I'm starting out small, with a turkey fryer and an extract kit.  If that works, I'll move on.  If it doesn't, Brew Hoo!