It's Alive!!!

The excitement of a new batch of home brew has taken over and it has been an excellent day overall.  This morning The Wife and I participated in the Rock ‘N’ Run 5K here in town.  I wasn’t quite sure why I agreed to do it, but I was certainly glad I did and had a great time!  The Wife and some friends (Caitlin, Meghann, Kelly, and Megan) did a wonderful job recapping the event, so I encourage you to check out what they had to say if you are interested.

Back to the excitement of home brewing.

My brewing supplies arrived on Tuesday as scheduled from Austin Homebrew Supply.  I do have a local option for supplies, but my interaction with the people there hasn’t been all that pleasant so I found another (better) option.  Austin Homebrew has a ton of recipe options (which is where I am at) and they have a flat shipping rate of 8 bucks if you don’t need your supplies for a few days (I don’t mind).  This was my first experience with them, but it won’t be my last.

Before going too much further I should say that I probably won’t get into all of the specifics of the how and why of home brewing in this first brewing post.  I am still learning and will share my successes and errors and what I gain from each.  If you stick with me, all of the pieces should come together along the way as I brew more and more batches.  In the meantime you can check out the brewing page on Brew and Bake since I think Matt did a great job of explaining the home brewing process.  If you would rather go the book route, of course check out Charlie Papazian’s “The Complete Joy of Home Brewing.”

Killing germs

After work on Tuesday I put everything that I would need for brewing in a sanitizing solution (I use the bleach and water method) to sit overnight to be ready to go on Wednesday.  After taking a short time to enter a contest after work Wednesday, I brought 2-1/2 gallons of water up to 160 degrees.  I put the crushed grains into a grain bag and into the heated water to steep for 45 minutes (maintaining 155 degrees or so).  Toward the end of that time I brought a half gallon of water up to 170 degrees.  When the time was up I lifted the grains out and poured the heated water over the grains (with the help of The Wife) to make sure all of the grainy goodness was not lost.

Steeping away

Mmm . . . grainy

After moving the liquid off the burner, the malt extract and honey (5 pounds total) was next to enter the pot.  The honey was added since the recipe is for a honey porter.  I stirred in the malt and honey until it was dissolved, then moved everything back to the heat to bring it to a boil.  Once the heat was adjusted to maintain a good rolling boil without boiling over (tons of sugar in there now), I was ready for the addition of hops.  The hops came in (2) one ounce packs, so I had to break out the scale to get the 1-1/2 ounces of bittering hops I needed.  I added that amount of hops and set a timer for 55 minutes.  After the timer sounded I added the remainder of the hops (the bittering hops and aroma hops are the same in this recipe) and set a timer for 5 more minutes.

Malt and honey

Hop pellets

After the time was up my goal was to bring the temperature of the wort down to 80 degrees s quickly as I could (ideally 15-20 minutes or so).  I had some ice in my cooler and added a lot of water in to get a good cold bath to sit the pot into.  After stirring and stirring and adding more and more ice, the temperature came down.

Stirring away

The wort was then poured into my (sanitized) primary fermenter through two strainers to get as much of the hops out of the mix as possible.  I added water to the bucket to get up to 5-1/4 gallons total.  At that time I checked the specific gravity of the wort using my (sanitized) hydrometer.  The reading was 1.054 which was very close (and close enough) to what the recipe said it would likely be at that point.  After double checking the temperature, the yeast was given a good shake and pitched in.  The lid was securely fit to the fermenter and the airlock was installed.  Happy days!

Into the bucket

I will be watching you

This is where things went a little off the preferred path (for me at least).  Fermentation should start after 12 hours (plus or minus), so I figured to see something by lunch time on Thursday.  Twenty four hours passed and no sign of fermentation activity.  Per suggestion of the recipe I sanitized a spoon, opened the fermenter, gave it a good stir, and put the lid back in place.  The next day came and still nothing.  My thought was that the Labor Day weekend extended the shipping time beyond the norm and the yeast didn’t make the trip unscathed.  I pulled out the hydrometer just to be sure that there was nothing going on.  The reading was the same, so I had to come up with a new plan.

After calling Austin Homebrew I knew that I could still save the batch if I could get my hands on some more ale yeast.  Since I didn’t want to wait days for shipping, I decided to make the trip across town.  Not surprisingly, I didn’t end up with the exact recommended yeast for the recipe (we will see what that does to the flavor), but I did get some Wyeast ale yeast so there was hope for the batch yet.  Having to propagate the yeast overnight, I took some of the wort from the fermenter to give the beasties something to eat.  I was sure to sanitize evreything each time when opening the fermenter, but it may be a small miracle if the batch isn’t contaminated at this point.

So today came and I was getting ready to pitch in the (new) yeast.  As I approached the fermenter I heard faint signs of life!  Could it be?  It seems the original yeast came back to life a bit or at least enough to make its presence known.  Since it was so faint and it had been days, I went ahead and pitched in the new yeast anyway (I did go to all of that trouble after all).

The cavalry

We will see what all of this yeast trauma does to the final product, but the good news at this point is that it’s alive!  The yeast are doing their thing and the spare bathroom (the fermenter is living in the bathtub) is filling with the aroma of fermenting beer.  The Wife maybe not appreciate the smell, but I am so glad that it is there.  As I wait (and watch the airlock), I will be sure to keep updating the status of the soon to be honey porter.