The Trials of my first brew (a Love story)

[boomtown25]

It was a blistery day on the Biloxi Coast (89 degrees, humidity was 76%-usual). I fired the burner up on the stove at 5:30 just as planned. I was going to go with Pink Floyd, but I decided instead to go with MUZAC classic Alternative to inspire "the morphasis" into beer. I filled the 7.5 g pot with 2.5 gallons of spring water. It took 30 minutes to reach the 170 degrees the recipe called for to steep my grains. I was quite worried about maintaining that temp, I have a gas stove, but I took a guess at half the temp and I guessed right. I steeped my grains for 20 minutes and had a nice dark pot, smelling great. I brought to a boil (another 20 minutes) and then threw my liquid malt (which had been getting viscous in the sink in hot water-dipped the whole thing in sanitary liquid) and added the dried malt as well. It took a little for it to reach a boil so I covered it......and then it happened. My sidekick "Pinot" the Chihuahua, was aching for attention, so I gave him some. As I looked back, I saw a yellow flame which could only mean one thing. Murphy's Law had kicked in. I sprang to work, lifting the top and cooling the wort. It settled quickly and I didn't have too much of trouble, but a nice wake up call of "never let your eyes leave the pot". I had a nice boil so I started the clock and added the first set of hops. No problem. The entire time I am drinking Anchor Steam and I am on about 4 by now. I continue to monitor not only my sidekick (Pinot) and my pot, but the music- Cure- Love Song. Countdown 3, 2, 1, and I move the pot to the ice bath. I pull my gallon bag of frozen spring waater out of the freezer and dip in the sanitization (just in case) and this is when you are not going to belive me. I went from boiling to 60 degrees (with the ice block floating in the wort) in 15 minutes. I throw in the fermentor, add the water to top off the 5 gallons, toss my liquid yeast, shake like a bitch, and cap it. I am a bit worried about it actually being too cold (I live in Mississippi, those words never come out of anyone's mouth around here, it was actually hard to speak, like a different language), so I put the brew belt on it just for an hour or two. I will leave it alone. I am seasoned with wine making so I know not to mess with it, but damn that was fun. I am hooked. I actually passed up going to drink to make my own drink!

 

[Ell]

Criminal! Brewing beer in Mississippi! Harumph!

You've got the first batch down... brew again next weekend or you'll be sorry... you'll drink this first batch too fast (not wait long enough for it condition... have some friends over to enjoy it, etc...) and they you'll be out.

Welcome to the addiction!

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Welcome aboard!!! You made some great moves there, good music for brewing. And since it was your first brew and you didn't have homebrew, you did the right thing, RDWHAAS, I always try'n have an Anchor Steam on brew day to remind me what a truly fine crafted beer tastes like.
+1 on brewing next weekend. I start to feel despair if more than ten days go by without adding a hop addition or yeast nutrient to something!
:rockin:

 

[unionrdr]

Quick thinking on your 1st brew. My wife did her 1st on NHB's day,brought the wort from the steeping grains to the boil. A very short time later,she runs to find me saying,the pot's exploding or something! I ran into the kitchen with her,& the pot was foaming up so fast I thought it was alive! We both wore out both arms stirring that one down.
I can't brew every weekend,but now that we have two brewers,working on a third,with 2 Fv's & a bottling bucket rigged up to be a possible third,we can do 11G of ale per month now.

 

[kanddr]

Sounds like you did it just right with some good music, a sidekick, and some craft brew to enjoy while you're making your first batch. Good job!
Now the hard part is to leave it and let it do its thing for several weeks!

 

[unionrdr]

Yup,the waiting is the hardest part. Then you bottle it,& guess what? You gotta wait some more! It does get easier with successive batches.

 

[likwidbliss]

+1 on The Cure, dog, drinking and brewing!

It must have been the day for crazy brewing. I accidently doubled my hops in my Pale ale last night. Supposed to be 1 oz each of cascade and simcoe, but dogs get my attention and added 2 oz of each. I am excited now, 120 IBUs!