beerforbreakfast
Member
My groomsmen bought me the deluxe brewing kit from the local brewing store, American Brewmaster, in Raleigh. They knew I enjoyed drinking quality beer, so they figured I'd enjoy making it. They said, "Out of all of us, you're the only one anal enough to pay such close attention to detail to what needs to be done."
Without an instruction sheet [that was supposed to come with the extract kit, oops!] and only a small book of brewing and Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing", I set off to brew a Pumpkin Spice Ale from an extract kit. I was scared and nervous.
I made mistakes, such as
Coulda been worse.
The beer turned out OK. I had to throw a few bottles away, but hey, I was happy with the results, given my first time and all.
Second batch was an extract porter. Followed instructions flawlessly, one of the best beers I ever had.
Now I've got an Irish Red dry hopping with Cascade Hops in the secondary, English Nut Brown Ale with honey sitting for a month in primary to be secondaried with rum soaked oak chips, and waiting to start an oatmeal stout that will be secondaried with coffee.
I've found lots of great tips and advice on this site and I look forward to learning more.
Without an instruction sheet [that was supposed to come with the extract kit, oops!] and only a small book of brewing and Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing", I set off to brew a Pumpkin Spice Ale from an extract kit. I was scared and nervous.
I made mistakes, such as
- I boiled the hell out of the steeping grains
- only put in half the hops called for so it wouldn't be "pale aley"
- used a very small strainer to strain the sediment from beer that would go into the fermenter
- fermented in a 5 gallon carboy, but with a blowoff hose
- quickly and ungracefully poured the beer from the carboy into the bottling bucket
- stirred the priming solution vigorously into the beer
- poured, using the spigot on the side of the bottling bucket,
- into santized, but unscrubbed bottles, some with mold
- didn't put the beer in the fridge once it was bottled
Coulda been worse.
The beer turned out OK. I had to throw a few bottles away, but hey, I was happy with the results, given my first time and all. Second batch was an extract porter. Followed instructions flawlessly, one of the best beers I ever had.
Now I've got an Irish Red dry hopping with Cascade Hops in the secondary, English Nut Brown Ale with honey sitting for a month in primary to be secondaried with rum soaked oak chips, and waiting to start an oatmeal stout that will be secondaried with coffee.
I've found lots of great tips and advice on this site and I look forward to learning more.
