I'm a home brewer!

     On November 30th I started brewing my very first batch of beer at home.  It's been something I've been thinking about for years but always had an excuse not to commit.  Now that I'm an adult and can follow through on ideas, I got it done.
     With help and motivation from a friend at work, I got the ball rolling in early November.  I had to purchase the basic supplies before I could start.  Fortunately it's 2010 and everything is available at the click of a mouse.  Even more fortunate is the fact that home brewing is constantly growing and Home Brew shops are easy to find in populated areas.  My local brew shop is less than two miles away.  All the websites and brew stores sell basic kits to get the new guys started.  These are the basic supplies that all brewers need, no matter how deep you get into the hobby.  I think this first investment was about $130.

 
     There are a few different ways to brew beer.  The easy, simple way is brewing with malt extract.  Basically, just add water, boil, and add hops and yeast.  Another way is adding a specialty grain to your malt extract.  You steep actual grains and add that "tea" to your malt extract batch.  The "real" way to brew beer is called the "all grain" method.  With this method you use malted grains, water, hops and yeast.  I went with the extract with specialty grains method.  Fairly easy so I could pay attention to the basics.
     Once a recipe was picked out I just needed to collect the ingredients.  A quick trip to my local brew store and $40 later I had everything needed to brew a northern english brown ale.  A recipe modeled after Newcastle.

     Now the fun part!  Have you ever tried boiling 6 gallons of water?  It takes a big flame.  I have a burner attached to my outdoor grill on my patio.  I thought this would be good enough.  I achieved a boil, but not the aggressive boil I needed.  This first batch will probably suffer, but I'm learning.  Immediately I thought my plan was a bad idea.  6 gallons of water weighs much more than the grill manufacturer planned on being on the burner.  I thought the little shelf was going to break off.  I have since acquired a turkey fryer burner with a big flame and steady base.  The next batch will be much better.
     After the steeping, which takes 30 minutes, and the boiling process which is an hour (once you actually get it to boil.)  Now the "wort" must be cooled.  The temp needs to drop below 75 degrees so you don't kill the yeast.  How long does it take to cool 5 gallons of liquid from 220 degrees to 75 degrees?  A long time!  The books suggest an ice bath.  Basically the opposite of thawing a turkey.  You set the pot in ice water in the tub or sink.  I didn't have enough ice.  It took me 5 hours to get the wort to the right temp.  I think this was a sick prank played on me.  Avid brewers all use a device called a wort chiller to bring down the temp quickly.  It's 25 to 50 feet of copper tube in a coil.  It's immersed in the hot wort and cold water is pumped through the tubing.  It takes about 20 minutes. I've since purchased my own.
     Finally the wort is poured into the fermentation vessel and corked with an air lock to keep any bad stuff from getting into the beer.  Now for another scare.  Nothing happened for 22 hours.  The books say if nothing happens in 24 hours the yeast is bad.  I've since learned how to jump start the yeast reaction time.  For days the yeast was going crazy.  Me, Nina and the cat would just stare at all the craziness in the brown liquid.  Two weeks later it was time to bottle, a fairly simple process minus all the cleaning and sanitation.
     Now the beer is sitting in bottles carbonating.  My first taste will be in two days.  It might be super awesome and tasty.  Or it could be nasty, bitter brown liquid.  One thing I know for sure.....It will be beer.