Homebrew!
13 November 2005 @ late evening | Comments (0)
A few weeks ago I went down to the local homebrewing supply store Home Brew Mart (aka Ballast Point Brewing Company) and purchased Starter Kit #3, entering myself into what I hope to be a long-term relationship with beer.
The recipe
We decided on a fairly simple recipe in order to focus mainly on the process, rather than the product, for the first batch of beer. We chose a west coast pale ale recipe, which yields a hoppy and refreshing copper-colored ale, balancing slightly on the bitter side.
- 3 lbs. light DME
- 3 lbs. amber DME
- 2 oz. Cascade hop pellets
- Muntons dry ale yeast
- ~4.5% ABV
The process
The entire process went pretty smoothly, aside from a broken hydrometer that prevented us from measuring the original specific gravity. Additionally, we forgot minor steps here or there throughout the process (like straining/sparging), but nothing that affected the final result in a distinguishably negative way.
We hadn’t anticipated the quantity of cold water needed in order to cool over two gallons of boiling wort, so we ended up having to seal the carboy and place it overnight in a bathtub filled with cold water. It took well over six hours to bring the temperature down from around 100°F to a safe pitching temperature. Chilling your water overnight prior to fermentation is a very good idea.
It also took quite a while for the yeast to become active (~24hr). This was probably due to the dry yeast (we didn’t rehydrate it prior to pitching) combined with low oxygenation in the wort that caused the lag. We were a bit concerned that it would give bacteria an opportunity to sour the beer, but fortunately that didn’t happen (next time I think we’ll try out some of White Labs’ liquid yeasts).
Fermentation was complete at around day 6 and we bottled on day 8, with a final specific gravity reading of 1.023. This, as I understand it, is a pretty high terminal gravity, so fermentation may have been stuck. In any case, there is no gushing or exploding bottles and the beer tastes good so it must be ok.
Most of the beginner’s recipes suggest using corn sugar when priming beer for bottling, but we opted to use 1 1/2 cups of light DME since most of what I’ve read leans toward its usage over corn sugar. We spilled a lot of beer while bottling, probably around 2-4 beers’ worth, but still managed to end up with two cases (24) of 22oz bottles.
The result
Having never observed bottle-fermentation before, it was quite amazing to witness the extent to which the yeast completely clouds the beer to a near-opaque consistency. Just when I thought there might be something wrong, on day 5 of bottle fermentation the beer completely cleared and the yeast settled to the bottom.
We had sampled the beer after each hydrometer reading (days 6-8) prior to bottling. The beer smelled good (honey-like), but tasted very bitter and lacked alcohol (obviously). After just six full days of bottle fermentation, the beer underwent a transformation in flavor that I’m still at a loss to explain.
On November 27, exactly two weeks after starting our first batch of homebrewed beer, we cracked open bottle #1 and it was fantastic. It possesses a rich amber-copper color, fairly strong floral hop aroma, moderate to strong bitterness, and has just the right amount of carbonation. Without exaggeration, I’d rate its “drinkability” at a 88/100.
Quite honestly, I’m shocked at how much a beer can change in just one week. I can’t wait to see how this beer tastes when it’s fully-matured in 4-6 weeks. I also don’t know if I’ll ever find out because of the rate at which we’re draining the current batch. We’re already planning Homebrew #2 (this time an IPA) so we’ll have something to share with friends on New Years.
Cheers!