I brewed my very own beer last week: a brown ale (name still pending, suggestions appreciated).
I cooked it up last Sunday. It was surprisingly easy and made my house smell like malty goodness instead of dogs.
Mmmm...Malty Goodness
I cooled it down, added the yeast, and set her in the closet for a week. She started gurgling Monday morning and bubbled continually till Tuesday morning. Tuesday, when I got home from work, she had quit and still had bubbles if you pressed on the lid, but nothing like before. I hope that's okay.
Last night, my dad came over with the bottles he sanitized (bonus! I didn't have to do that!), and we bottled her up. Here's what the wort looked like before being siphoned into the bottling bucket. I tasted some of the sludge left at the bottom and it was unidentifiably gross at first with a super hoppy after taste.
Here's my beer pouring into my little bottling bucket:
And here's the finished product (I used one clear bottle just so I could admire my work!).
Now I have to wait 3 weeks to drink it. I've dropped numerous hints that if this goes well, I would like a full kegerator set up for Christmas so I can keg my beer and drink it sooner. Come to think of it, my birthday's in a couple of weeks, so maybe I can make this happen sooner...
Woot! Great job, sister!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the fermenting wort bubbling like mad for a day or two then seemingly stopping is the norm. I've had ones that never seemed to bubble at all, but they always became, through Teh Magic of Teh Beer Gods, beer in the end. The longer you let them ferment, the better they'll be. Also true of bottle conditioning - the longer you let them condition, the better they'll be.
Within reason of course. I mean, it's a brown ale, and no amount of fermenting or conditioning will turn it into a barley wine, obviously.
I have sampled a bottle or two of mine as quickly as a week after bottling. I don't necessarily recommend this - and with a brown ale, it might not even be carbonated at that point, or barely so. But I get impatient.
The only thing I'd caution against is the use of clear glass. You'll be okay as long as your beer is conditioning in a dark place. Mine conditions on a shelf in my garage that's covered with canvas. (You can see the shelves behind Ian here. Look at 'em - all cute and buttoned up!)
The reason you avoid clear (or even green) glass is the beer can become light-struck, which usually manifests in a skunky smell and taste.
And at that point, you might as well be drinking - *shudder* - Heineken.
The beer's brown - give it a brown bottle to match!
Good job sister! Way better than I did on my first attempt!
O, also ... in this heat? Don't be surprised if they kinda erupt when you open them - especially if you used a lot of priming sugar. Shouldn't happen with a brown ale, but open SLOWLY and near a sink just in case.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry. They're all in brown bottles except the one clear one so I could see how pretty it is and a couple of grolsch bottles that happened to be green. The rest are in brown bottles and hidden safely in my closet!
ReplyDeletehmmm...I am intrigued by this experiment...keep me posted....oh, and I updated my blog. It's only been a year. :)
ReplyDeleteSoooo ... It's been a week of conditioning ... did you TRY one yet?
ReplyDeleteI would have by now.
Mmmmmmm ... browwwwwwwwwn aaaaaaaale ...