Weekend in Review: Brewing & Bottling
A few weeks ago, the architect & I attended a beer-making class, and then took the plunge & made our own beer.
We decided to make an IPA (because we like IPA).
Although I didn’t get pictures of everything (I need to hire a photographer to follow me around & take photos of my life!), we got quite a few.
We finished up the bottling yesterday!
Untoasted malt – hanging out in the oven
Finished & toasty malt!
Big bag o’ grains (Crystal & Biscuit malt)
The grains are steeping (like tea, only smellier!)
The Northern Brewer hops!
The hops are ready to get in the pot!
The powdered malt was really sticky…and this doesn’t look at all like beer now, does it?
The Irish moss & some cascade hops were added at the end.
At this point, we couldn’t take photos, due to the necessity of having both people involved this time, and the cats’ unwillingness to help us out.
We poured the hot liquidy stuff out of the pot (removing the hops) into the fermenter, cooled the wort, and then added water before adding our American ale yeast. Then, we sealed it up tight. And then we went out & drank some beer! When we got home, the fermenter was bubbling away!
Fast forward to a couple weeks later – bottling time!
First we mixed up some corn sugar with hot water (boiling, actually) to add to the bottling bucket (this creates the carbonation). Then, we washed & sanitized a bunch of bottles & our bottling equipment.
First, we had to siphon the beer from our fermenter to our bottling bucket (after once again obsessively sanitizing everything).
This was kind of awesome.
Then, it was time to bottle! The architect filled the bottles.
And I capped them. It was fun, although I would deny any rumours suggesting that I giggled a little in glee every time I capped a bottle!
And here they are! 23 bottles of beer (on the wall). All but 3 of the bottles were 22 oz bottles, so that is 542 oz of beer! WOO!
Lola is inspecting the beer before it goes back to the beer celler (i.e. pantry) for its final aging.
We’ll probably pop one of the small bottles open in a couple weeks to see how it’s doing, but are planning on holding out at least 3-4 before getting all crazy. Don’t worry – there will be a report!
Original Gravity : 1.05
Final Gravity : 1.012
Alcohol by Volume : 5.1%
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