Batch #1: The Brewing of a Brown Ale

After much hesitation and some prodding by my wife, I finally sat down Friday to actually get to brewing. I'm not kidding when I say the level of absurd cleanliness and sterility of environment that just about everywhere says is required for brewing is truly daunting, especially for a way-less-than-anal-retentive guy. So I used the no-rinse cleaning solution that came with my kit to clean up the equipment that I'd need for the first day - essentially the stuff to get it from the brewpot to the primary fermenter. Most of me is still nervous that something wasn't quite clean enough. I'd hate to ruin it...

So after bringing about a gallon and a half of water to a boil, with the stirring assistance of my wife I poured in the malts and hops, and got the brew going.

Just look at that foamy, caramelly darkness!

It took only a few minutes for the wort (pronounced "wert" to those who don't know... that's what beer's called at this stage prior to fermentation) to go back to a boil.

Drooool... it kinda looks like liquid chocolate... so sweet...

To say this brew is sweet smelling is WAAAAAAAAAAY understating. Seriously, the boiling wort smelled like caramel-molasses sticky sweet goo TIMES A BILLION. Actually, it was almost sickeningly sweet... No that's not true... it WAS sickeningly sweet. With the distant scent of beer (from the little bit of hops involved). Which means it's got some good potential for a mighty tasty brown. And seems to have potential for high alcohol content... because:

yeast + sugar = alcohol (+ CO2)

:D

I'm not at all going to lie that I struggled with sticking to the recipe from the kit... I am a tinker by nature and wanted SOOOO bad to start adding and experimenting with flavors on this batch, in spite of the fact that I promised myself that I would go by the book, if only for this first one, to get a proper feel for brewing beer correctly. I got over myself and didn't fudge with it during the brewing, so that's a big step. But I still struggle with not fooling around with it in the future...

Anyway, next step after the 30 minute boil is cooling the wort as quickly as possible. Since I don't have a fancy wort cooler, I used an ice bath in the sink. It's actually impressive at the heat it has for how long and how much ice and water it takes to actually cool it to the requisite 80 degrees.

Cooling malty goodness.

From there it was transferred into the primary fermenter. I probably should have used the auto-siphon I have to transfer it, but I figured I could go ahead and pour. The reasoning is the hops that by now have settled to the bottom of the brewpot - better to not transfer them into the fermenter, but probably no real harm done. Particularly because I'm going to use the siphon to move it from the primary to the secondary fermenter, and I'll be sure to avoid the hops then. Anyway, I'll probably siphon from brewpot to primary next time, but I think for now this went just fine.

So at this point purified water is added to true the brew up to 5 gallons in the fermenter, and then the goal is to get the yeast in and get the fermenter closed and sealed up ASAP so as to avoid any contamination getting into the brew. See, now that it's been boiled, and since it's all wet and sugary and going to be stored at room temperature for weeks, it's the PRIME sort of environment for bacteria to prosper, which can ruin the batch entirely. This is why purified water is used... tap water is probably not pure enough, if only because the faucet itself isn't quite de-microbed. All that beer having to be dumped out... what a terrible thing.

The problem is... I'm an idiot and a n00b. The yeast needs to be primed in warm water before it's ready to be poured in. This takes about 15 minutes.

And I hadn't done it yet.

So I tried to cover up the brew best I could and prepped the yeast (which annoyingly, at this point, requires purified water and has to be done in a cleansed cup... which I hadn't done when I cleaned all the rest of the equipment). The process took an extra half hour with the wort unsealed (though generally well covered... ish...), but it got done.

Next, once fully sealed, I had to put the airlock on the lid of the fermenter. I used vodka in the airlock instead of water, in the event that some slips into the brew (once again, purity, and alcohol being antiseptic, etc.). Well, in the process, I'm pretty sure some vodka got into the wort. About a quarter ounce.

So we'll see what that does. :)

Not that a quarter ounce in 5 gallons makes much of a difference. Meh.

Naturally, about an hour after getting it all squared away, the airlock popped out like a wee little rocket in the cabinet where I'm keeping it. I got it reset and fixed up though, so a week in the primary, and we will be on to step two.

I didn't take any pictures of the wort in the fermenter yet, but I'll try to include one next time. In the mean time, little yeast beasties: get makin alcohol! I noticed bubbles in the air lock the next evening, meaning alcohol was being made. :D

I have high hopes for this being a tasty brew...

...but doubtful wort has its doubts...


Recipe details:
True Brew (brand) All Malt Brown Ale -
3.3 lb can unhopped liquid dark malt extract
2 lbs dark powdered malt extract
8 oz malto-dextrin
1 oz UK First Gold hop pellets
1 pack brewing yeast
~1/4 oz Smirnoff vodka (on accident)

30 minute boil; starting gravity 1.041