It’s not exactly a secret that my beer-brewing has been less than successful so far…
But! All is not lost. In this video how-to, I’ll show you, the aspiring homebrewer/google-addicted stoner browsing the web, just how to make a decent pot of homebrew. At least, how to put together and boil ingredients:
Educational? Maybe. Howto? You betcha.
So…. I checked in on the vat of beer-ish liquid that’s sitting in my apartment (it shouldn’t be turning into beer because I killed the yeast).
To my surprise, the fermentation lock is bubbling. Not a strong roaring bubbling, but a slow, measured, every-couple-seconds-I’ll-spit-out-a-bubble sort of bubbling.
Now I don’t know what to do with it. I’m very curious what would happen if i bottle it, so I may mix my priming sugar with it and bottle at least 3-4 bottles to see what I get.
I’m out of town for the week, but will be posting/drinking from Knoxville, Tenn., so I’d have to wait until I got back before I did anything serious with it.
My roommate considered that I should call it “Zombie brew” if it survives this. I whole heartedly agree.
Well, the beer is looking ok… but I’m worried I killed the yeast when I put it into the fermentor. Yeast has needs, apparently, and I am just not the person to supply those.
Basically, after my happier post last night, I proceeded to take the advice of two of the three instruction books I had for the beer brewing and did not chill the wort before pouring it into the fermentor (plastic bucket) filled with cold water. Some poeple suggest chiling the wort to 70 degrees before mixing with the rest of the water, but I didn’t want to wait, thinking the cold water would insta-cool the wort.
Turns out, it doesn’t.
Tonight has been a very successful evening of brewing at home. I was told it was about as easy as following directions and I haven’t been disappointed.
I bought Charlie Papazian‘s (@CharliePapazian) book The Complete Joy of Home Brewing (CJHB): Fully Revised and Updated 3rd Edition to help me with this quest. It’s been invaluable. Charlie does a fantastic job of helping you understand the steps as a beginner. The book grows with you, with intermediate steps and tons of recipies for advanced brewers. I’m sure I’ll be trying some of them as I get a better grip on the whole process. (Who knows? Maybe that will be Part II of the Great Brewing Adventure: Brewing through CJHB.
Anyway, I’ll have some video of my brewing tomorrow or Thursday. I’m excited to start drinking this already. The wort smells amazing.