Back to my wife. So then in February for my birthday she purchased me a membership to the American Homebrewers Association. This membership offers lots of cool rewards like a years subscription to Zymurgy, an awesome bimonthly homebrewing/beer enthusiast magazine, pub discounts, discounts on resources, etc. As cool as this is, it’s not a reason to join AHA. That would be like me saying I became a teacher for the discount on my cell phone bill. The two main reasons, as I see it, one joins is

1. Because they are passionate about beer and/or homebrewing
2. To connect with other beer enthusiasts

So to summarize, my wife is the greatest, she knows my passions and fans the flames, rather than stifling them despite her not understanding or agreeing with them all.

I have been a bad blogger.

I have not updated this site since this past summer. However, there are good reasons. First of all, I have not been brewing so I didn’t have much to write about. I was not brewing because I got married in January on the 19th. The amount of planning and preparation needed really escaped me. However, I am back and brewing like crazy.

For this post, some cool new things have happened.

• My wife bought me a kegerator for my wedding gift
• I purchased a reusable keg
• I will be kegging all future beers

This has had a strong impact on my likeliness to brew. The bottling is a real pain in the ass. You have to collect the bottles, clean them, and then bottling the beer is about a 20 to 35 min process. Needless to say, I am not unhappy I don’t have to do that again unless I want to.

The brew is coming

There was a chemicall-y after taste to the brew, kind of like a medicine taste to it. I have noticed over time as I continue to let the beer age the after taste has dissipated. I don’t know if this is typical or if this means that I made a mistake somewhere along the line. I plan to take a bottle to a local homebrew shop to see what they have to say.

All in all, I am very happy with my beer. I did a good job! I like having the large quantity available to share with friends. I am already planning the next beer. I am looking for a light, fruity, but high alcohol content beer. Anyone got any god recipes fitting the bill?

I then rinsed the bottles and set the carboy on the bitchen counter with the plastic fermenter below it. The transfer process was a breeze. I did a 6 pack at a time then immediately capped it. This process probably took about 30 min. Including cleaning and prep it probably took about 3 hours.

What I have learned is that in the future I need to streamline the bottling process, especially cleaning and sterilization. Maybe I could invest in a bottle cleaner.

9. …check the hydrometer reading. If it has fallen to half the original reading, sanitize your glass carboy with B-Brite…

This being my first time, I misunderstood this direction. My original S.G. reading after combining wort and yeast was 1.043, well according to this direction I was waiting for my brew’s S.G.. to drop to .5215. I checked it on day 3 of primary fermentation S.G.=1.022, day 4 S.G.=1.022, and day 5 (today) S.G. = 1.022. From this I assumed that when the direction above said half I suppose they meant the decimals.

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I live in a condominium which runs off of a very large well system. The water has a lot of chlorine, in fact when I shower I often come out smelling of chlorine. One thing I have learned is that a little chlorine is ok but alot is bad news for beer. I purchased 5 gallons of Deer Park water from the grocery store which ended up costing me about $7.50.

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Type:Light

Primary Date:Saturday, 5/19/2007

Primary:

1. Combined 1.5 Gallons and 1 lb. Munton’s Crushed Crystal (2 row)
2. brought to a boil, steeped for 5 min.
3. Added 2 3.3 lbs. cans of Munton’s Light Malt Extract, Water Crystals, and Cascade Hops
4. Boiled for 30 min
5. Combined warm wort and water in primary fermenter

checked SG on 5/22/07 - 1.022

Secondary Date:Tuesday, 5/24/07

Secondary:
checked SG on 5/24/07 - 1.022

1. Sanitized Carboy, siphon, and bung
2. Transferred beer to carboy
3. Resealed

Starting Specific Gravity: 1.044

Finished Specific Gravity: 1.02

Bottling Date: Tuesday, 6/5/07

Comments:This beer was part of the Samuel Adams Brewing Kit that I purchased.

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