But I am no Giada. Seriously! I'd be up in the night if I thought anyone would be into a play-by-play of the brewing process as told by yours truely. I am a lot of things, but a cooking show host, unfortunately, I am not.
I have decided instead to focus this blog on my observations and experiences with home brewing beer and not on the entire process "Food Network" style. I will point you in the direction of some great resources in future posts so hopefully I can entertain and inform at the same time.
Ok, now that that is settled; I made my first wort on New Year's Eve 2010. The ingredient kit I purhased was for a wheat beer. This recipe was very straight forward: boil the malt extract with the bittering hops (German Perle) for 45 minutes. Then, add the finishing hops (Czech Saaz) continue to boil for 15 minutes, chill, place in the fermenter, pitch the yeast, seal the airlock, and let nature take its course.
The hops that I used were pelletized for longevity in storage and ease in use. I only had one fabric steeping bag as supplied in my ingredient kit. I cut it in half so that I could make two 'teabags': one for the bittering hops and another for the finishing hops. I noticed that this made for tight little bundles of hops, not quite what I would have hoped for. I decided in the future to have extra bags on hand for hops or to just let them float free in the wort. I really value hops flavor in my beer and I think these are the best options to achive that.
Since I needed to measure the specific gravity (more on this to come) I was able to taste test some of my wort. It was sweeter then I expected it to be. Perheps do to poor hops dispersal? I guess I will have to experiment and see.
So there sat my fermenter. Full of wort waiting for yeast to grow, colonize, and eat the sugars converting them to alcohol and CO2. I watched with anticipation for the first tell-tale signs of fermentation: bubbling water in the airlock. Oh, I can't wait!
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6
I'm listening. Go on.
ReplyDelete