New Project

Inspired by Conor and Alina's homebrewing, I came up with a great birthday present for Lloyd this year. While I was in Boston, Alina and I went shopping at their favorite brew supply store, and chose a Scottish Ale kit for Lloyd. I'm sure the TSA inspectors were amused when they opened my checked back to see what the can of liquid and assorted powders, grains and foil packs of hops were. I was 2 for 2 that last trip for inspections.

We had all the major equipment we needed from my blackberry wine making venture. That didn't turn out good enough to repeat. Last Sunday we decided to cook up some beer. Alas, my largest pot was a mere 3 gallons, and I feared serious spillage onto my ceramic stovetop. So I went in search of a bigger pot, had to cross the bridge and found what I was looking for at WalMart. The irony of buying my husband a pot! I had a choice of 4 gallon or 5. I figured what the heck, go big. It's a beauty.

I don't know what I was expecting for hops when I opened the foil packs. They looked like something that should be fed to rabbits. They sure smelled good, though. The cooking went well, and I was glad we had the extra headroom, so to speak, as one flash boil nearly reached the top.

After cooking, the whole pot goes into an ice bath in the sink to cool it off before adding the yeast. We did not have a big enough ice supply in our pathetically small ice maker, so that involved an unscheduled late evening run to Thriftway before they closed.

The wort made it into the fermenter, and we put it downstairs in the dark storage area after checking the temp to make sure it was in range. Unfortunately, it got really cold that night and by morning, it was a tad chilly for activating yeast, so it took up residence in the laundry room. By evening it had started percolating away. Glug Glug.

This weekend we'll siphon out the good stuff into the glass carbouy for the secondary, then we'll have a little time to locate some bottles and a capper. I think it will have to stay in the laundry room. Cold weather is on its way and we don't want to kill off our yeast too soon. Good thing our technical advisor is just a text message away. Stay tuned.