Making Beer
Those that know me well know that I pretty much don't like beer. 95% of every beer I've ever tasted I've disliked. There are maybe 2 beers I can actually drink and like. I can tolerate Guinness but I shouldn't have to tolerate something I am willfully ingesting.
So, being who I am, I decided to try and make my own beer and make it to my tastes. Here in the Pacific NW, home of the thousand micro-brews you pretty much have one choice in beers. Super bitter extra hoppy pale ales. Blech! Not what I like.
After stumbling on a home brew supply shop, with a very handsome owner I might add, I decided to give it a try and make my own beer that would suit my palate. I did some research on what goes into beer and a lot of questioning the guy at the shop for some ideas. I bought a brew kit and came up with a recipe myself to attempt my first brew. I decided against using a pre-fab kit to brew my beer because I didn't want to end up with 5 gallons of some bitter over hopped swill that I wasn't going to ever drink.
I'll spare the recipe and the long drawn out process of brewing the beer but here are some pics and video clips from the process thus far. Right now, the beer is sitting in cases in the closet carbonating after a 3 hour bottling session yesterday. My initial taste test yesterday went well and I like it, for a beer. We'll see how it turns out when it's carbonated and chilled. When I get back from my visit to Baltimore it should be ready to drink.
Photos of different stages of brewing
Boiling the wort
Syphoning the beer from the fermenter into the bottling bucket
So, being who I am, I decided to try and make my own beer and make it to my tastes. Here in the Pacific NW, home of the thousand micro-brews you pretty much have one choice in beers. Super bitter extra hoppy pale ales. Blech! Not what I like.
After stumbling on a home brew supply shop, with a very handsome owner I might add, I decided to give it a try and make my own beer that would suit my palate. I did some research on what goes into beer and a lot of questioning the guy at the shop for some ideas. I bought a brew kit and came up with a recipe myself to attempt my first brew. I decided against using a pre-fab kit to brew my beer because I didn't want to end up with 5 gallons of some bitter over hopped swill that I wasn't going to ever drink.
I'll spare the recipe and the long drawn out process of brewing the beer but here are some pics and video clips from the process thus far. Right now, the beer is sitting in cases in the closet carbonating after a 3 hour bottling session yesterday. My initial taste test yesterday went well and I like it, for a beer. We'll see how it turns out when it's carbonated and chilled. When I get back from my visit to Baltimore it should be ready to drink.
Photos of different stages of brewing
Boiling the wort
Syphoning the beer from the fermenter into the bottling bucket