Irish
03-02-2009, 08:27 PM
I picked up a nice little home brew start-up kit before the holidays, and after a few months of preparation and waiting, I'm finally getting to enjoy a pretty tasty home brew! Here's a quick run down of my first brew:
Beer: Irish Red Ale (Partial grain/extract recipe kit from Midwest Home Brew)
December 26th, Brew Day:
After a few months of reading up on the brewing process, a buddy and I found a good full free day to brew. I pretty much followed John Palmer's "How to Brew" to a T, so I'll just highlight a few of the steps. The recipe I picked was a partial grain and extract recipe, so after cleaning and sanitizing all the equipment, I started by steeping the grains. Then we added the extract and bittering hops and began the hour long boil. Added the aroma hops with about 2 minutes left in the boil. We took advantage of the 10 degree weather and cooled the wort outside in a tub of ice/snow water, bringing it down to 75^ in a little over 15 minutes. Finally we poured the wort into the primary fermenter (food-grade bucket), pitched in the yeast (I used Lallemand Nottingham Ale yeast because I was planning on cool storage temperatures), slapped down the lid, put the airlock w/ some vodka in place and stored the fermenter away. Within about 4-6 hours, the airlock was happily bubbling away. Unfortunately I was pretty tuned into the directions/recipe on brew day, so no pics from that day.
Fast forward about a week...
Primary fermentation is complete (verified with a quick specific gravity check), so now it's time to transfer the beer from the plastic primary fermenting bucket to the secondary fermenter for conditioning (Better Bottle carboy).
My setup - Better Bottle & Plastic "Ale Pail" Bucket Fermenter
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4176.jpg
While I read that a lot of brewers don't use the secondary, I wanted to because I had A LOT of hops and hot break that ended up in the primary - we tried straining the wort while pouring but the filter kept clogging up, so a lot made it into the fermenter. Some pics of the transfer:
Popped the lid off the fermenting bucket - smells like beer! ;)
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4177.jpg
Transferring the beer to the Better Bottle
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4179.jpg
Lots of left over trub:
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4180.jpg
All transferred to the Better Bottle
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4184.jpg
I initially had planned to store my fermenters in the basement while at work, but we were hit with such a cold spell that it wasn't more than about 58-60 degrees down there, too cold for even the Nottingham yeast. So I ended up keeping it upstairs in the kitchen. I tasted the sample I took for testing the specific gravity and was fairly impressed - pretty good for flat beer!
Fast Forward Two Weeks...
After I let the beer settle for 2 weeks in the secondary, it's time to bottle. Transferred the beer from the better bottle to my bottling bucket, primed with sugar carbonation, and bottled the beer (I got 45 full bottles)
Transferring Beer to Bottling Bucket
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4221.jpg
Fast Forward Two Weeks... Super Bowl Sunday
So the beer has been bottle carbonating for about 2 weeks. I popped one open for the Super Bowl, thinking they should be good. Not so much - a bit of carbonation, but pretty much flat. I panicked a bit, thinking I screwed up somewhere. I gently swirled all of the bottles to stir up and reactivate the left over yeast, and stored the bottles away for another few weeks.
Fast Forward to this past weekend...
After a few months of a very hectic work schedule, I figured I'd try popping open another beer to see if they were finished. We have carbonation - and a damned tasty beverage - success! The net results were awesome, I wouldn't say it's the best beer I've ever had, but really good for a first try. It came out with a much more hoppy flavor than I had expected for an Irish Red, more of like a Sam Adams lager flavor or an IPA. It may be due to the fact that I wasn't able to strain out a lot of the finishing hops after the boil, I don't know. The beer had a nice amber color to it, and the secondary provided a good clear beer:
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4294.jpg
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4295.jpg
Thanks to those who answered a few of my noobie questions!
I have a minor problem - I'm enjoying the beer so much that I see myself getting back into beer again big time - goodbye diet! :mrgreen: Next on the block I'm going to try a lighter cream ale. I have another kit I'm going to try, then I think I may venture off to make some recipes from scratch.
Beer: Irish Red Ale (Partial grain/extract recipe kit from Midwest Home Brew)
December 26th, Brew Day:
After a few months of reading up on the brewing process, a buddy and I found a good full free day to brew. I pretty much followed John Palmer's "How to Brew" to a T, so I'll just highlight a few of the steps. The recipe I picked was a partial grain and extract recipe, so after cleaning and sanitizing all the equipment, I started by steeping the grains. Then we added the extract and bittering hops and began the hour long boil. Added the aroma hops with about 2 minutes left in the boil. We took advantage of the 10 degree weather and cooled the wort outside in a tub of ice/snow water, bringing it down to 75^ in a little over 15 minutes. Finally we poured the wort into the primary fermenter (food-grade bucket), pitched in the yeast (I used Lallemand Nottingham Ale yeast because I was planning on cool storage temperatures), slapped down the lid, put the airlock w/ some vodka in place and stored the fermenter away. Within about 4-6 hours, the airlock was happily bubbling away. Unfortunately I was pretty tuned into the directions/recipe on brew day, so no pics from that day.
Fast forward about a week...
Primary fermentation is complete (verified with a quick specific gravity check), so now it's time to transfer the beer from the plastic primary fermenting bucket to the secondary fermenter for conditioning (Better Bottle carboy).
My setup - Better Bottle & Plastic "Ale Pail" Bucket Fermenter
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4176.jpg
While I read that a lot of brewers don't use the secondary, I wanted to because I had A LOT of hops and hot break that ended up in the primary - we tried straining the wort while pouring but the filter kept clogging up, so a lot made it into the fermenter. Some pics of the transfer:
Popped the lid off the fermenting bucket - smells like beer! ;)
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4177.jpg
Transferring the beer to the Better Bottle
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4179.jpg
Lots of left over trub:
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4180.jpg
All transferred to the Better Bottle
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4184.jpg
I initially had planned to store my fermenters in the basement while at work, but we were hit with such a cold spell that it wasn't more than about 58-60 degrees down there, too cold for even the Nottingham yeast. So I ended up keeping it upstairs in the kitchen. I tasted the sample I took for testing the specific gravity and was fairly impressed - pretty good for flat beer!
Fast Forward Two Weeks...
After I let the beer settle for 2 weeks in the secondary, it's time to bottle. Transferred the beer from the better bottle to my bottling bucket, primed with sugar carbonation, and bottled the beer (I got 45 full bottles)
Transferring Beer to Bottling Bucket
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4221.jpg
Fast Forward Two Weeks... Super Bowl Sunday
So the beer has been bottle carbonating for about 2 weeks. I popped one open for the Super Bowl, thinking they should be good. Not so much - a bit of carbonation, but pretty much flat. I panicked a bit, thinking I screwed up somewhere. I gently swirled all of the bottles to stir up and reactivate the left over yeast, and stored the bottles away for another few weeks.
Fast Forward to this past weekend...
After a few months of a very hectic work schedule, I figured I'd try popping open another beer to see if they were finished. We have carbonation - and a damned tasty beverage - success! The net results were awesome, I wouldn't say it's the best beer I've ever had, but really good for a first try. It came out with a much more hoppy flavor than I had expected for an Irish Red, more of like a Sam Adams lager flavor or an IPA. It may be due to the fact that I wasn't able to strain out a lot of the finishing hops after the boil, I don't know. The beer had a nice amber color to it, and the secondary provided a good clear beer:
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4294.jpg
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4295.jpg
Thanks to those who answered a few of my noobie questions!
I have a minor problem - I'm enjoying the beer so much that I see myself getting back into beer again big time - goodbye diet! :mrgreen: Next on the block I'm going to try a lighter cream ale. I have another kit I'm going to try, then I think I may venture off to make some recipes from scratch.