Several years ago I brewed a few batches of my own beer. Some came out good, some not so much. Over the last couple of years I have been on the microbrew train with a lot of people. I can’t believe how popular microbreweries are doing here in the US. It’s great. Lots of really good beer being brewed by some amazing brew masters. I especially like IPAs, and the hoppier the better for me. One of my photography projects for 2014 is to shoot breweries that I visit. Looking forward to getting that one started in January, I have also had the urge to start brewing again myself, but just haven’t got started, That changed at Christmas,
I received a brew kit as a gift from one of my daughters and a box of bottles from my other daughter, So I had no more excuses. The kit is for Everyday IPA from BrooklynBrewShop.com. I love the way the kit is packaged, the layout of the website, and the ease of using the kit to brew. The branding of this company is great. The website is easy to get around and I could easily spend hours on the site. There are how to videos and printed instructions on the site. It’s great!
So yesterday I started my first batch of home brewed beer. And it was a blast, the mess and all. The kit is pretty straight forward. The grains, hops and yeast are all included. A 1 gallon glass fermenting jug, and all the tools you need, even the thermometer! And everything is very good quality. The only things I needed beyond the kit was a 6 quart pot, fine mesh strainer and a funnel. I had the pot and strainer. But I found I need a larger strainer than I had. (did I mention a mess). I had to purchase a funnel as everything I had was too small. Don’t tell anyone but I had Gayle find me one and she purchased an automotive funnel and it works great!
The first step was to turn the grains into mash (I’m trying to use the proper terms). Basically, you steep the grains in about 150 degree water for about an hour or so. Then you strain the mash and pour a gallon of 170 degree water over the mash to give you about 5 quarts of a very sweet liquid called wort. Sorry, no pictures of the straining process (Gayle would kill me if she saw the mess I made)
Then came the fun part, adding the hops. I love the smell of hops. I mean I REALLY love the smell of hops.
This IPA uses 2 hop varieties, Columbus and Cascade. The Columbus and a small amount of the Cascade were added to the wort once it started a slow boil. Then a small amount of the Cascade hops were added every 15 minutes with the last bit added at the end of the 1 hour boil.
After the boil the wort had to be cooled to 70 degrees. Then it was poured into the fermenting jug, yeast added and everything shaken up to wake up the yeast.
Now I am waiting for about 3 days to remove the tube which allows CO2 to exit with a special bottle plug. Then after 2 weeks some honey is added and the beer is pumped into bottles which are capped and stored for another 2 weeks. And then we see what we have. Hopefully, a great batch of Everyday IPA that I can brag about. If not, I’ll try again, just so I can get to smell the hops.
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