So after it's been a few weeks since the last post. Carolyn, Brian and I finally had a weekend to get together and start our next "arts and craft" project.
Brewing beer Mmmmm.....
So 10:30a Saturday morning we met at Hops and Berries to pick out our ingredients. Brian was great; he spent time in his Beer Bible to pick out recipes he thought all three of us would enjoy. To our/his dismay not all of the ingredients were available. So we reverted to the brewing recipes at Hops and Berries. We found a brown ale recipe with caramel, nutty flavors.
Hops (the green leaf) wheat (grain), and the yeast(tube).
The grain go into the bag.
We start with boiling water (almost) to 160 degrees. Carolyn is monitoring the temp.
The grains are dipped in the water, similar to a tea bag method.
Calculating our total investment. Initial batch of beer will cost us about $5.00 per bottle. Following batches are projected to be around a $1.00 per bottle.
*if you drink beer with pop-off (not screw-off) save the for us.*
Our next step is to stir in the malt. It looked yummy enough to try. Our instincts were right. It taste like molasses...and is sticky just like molasses
Hops are added at intervals. The first batch into the tea bag and steep for 40 min. This is for flavor.
The second batch for 20min. This batch adds to the complexity of the boquet.
Keeping track of the temperature.
Pull the hops, and cool as quickly as possible from boiling to 80 degrees. This is the concentrate. We will add it to cold water and then add the yeast.
Ah! The yeast. Final step.
Now we (we, as in Brian) have to agitate the beer.
It starts fermenting in the bottle for 10-14 days.
Then we bottle....and wait 4 weeks for consumption.
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