Love and Spice: Finally Brewing Beer! Step One

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Finally Brewing Beer! Step One

Thursday was a holiday and I didn't have to go to work. So I used the morning to start the brew process--finally.

It was all going so well...I made it through the whole recipe with no issues or problems, but then the shit hit the fan when I went to cool it down, top it off, and add the yeast.

First of all, the siphon wouldn't work. That was just a set-up issue on our part, but we ended up just pouring the wort into the plastic bucket instead of siphoning. I left quite a bit of liquid in the pot to avoid transferring the sludge (I know there's a real term for the stuff, but can't remember what it is!). Then, I topped off with water I'd boiled previously, and tried to use the hydrometer to take a reading of the original gravity. That was a joke. The wort foamed as I mixed the water in (and you need to aerate, so that's a good thing) and then I couldn't see the damn hydrometer to read it. I panicked...eventually, I gave up and brought it down to the garage to start fermentation. I later found out that this is pretty normal and as long as you have added the amount of water the recipe calls for, you're probably ok.

So I went to check on the bucket to make sure the volume was ok, and I realized that somehow there were only THREE GALLONS of water/wort in the bucket when there should have been 5. I boiled 5 gallons of water!! Does that much water evaporate?? I can't figure out how even with poor technique I could have lost that much water. Maybe I was wrong about the amount of water I boiled, but geez.

So in a panic, I ran out and bought 2 gallons of Poland Springs water. But it was really cold. So I heated the water a bit to room temp before I added it. But then I realized, I'd washed the pot after I poured out the wort but didn't sanitize it. So I added water that was heated--but not boiled--in an unsanitized pot. Hopefully there won't be any issues...

Then, I started googling and was worried about blowing the airlock and having beer go all over the garage. So I ran to Lowe's and bought some more plastic tubing. I pulled apart the air lock and put the tubing over the bottom piece and ran the tube into a bucket with water and sanitizer. I saw this online, so I hope it works. So far, so good. I can see that fermentation is taking place because I see bubbles coming out of the tube and there is condensation inside the tube as well. My Monday or maybe Tuesday I will transfer it to the carboy and then let it sit another 2 weeks before bottling.

At this point, I'm just crossing my fingers the beer is drinkable.