First Brew!

First ever brewing day.

Disaster is a strong word. It wasn’t a disaster.

I started the brew day extremely optimistically, I was very excited. I arranged everything out and weighed everything to the right measures. I started to heat up the water, and that’s when I learned my first lesson.

I don’t have a hob that is powerful enough to heat 4 gallons of water. Or at least, I don’t have a hob that’s powerful enough to heat 4 gallons of water within 5 hours or so and stay boiling. This means that my first brew day was a tortuous experience. It took an hour and a half just to heat the water up to steeping temperature.

When it finally did reach steeping temperature, I popped the grain in. I didn’t realise when I placed the order that I had ordered crushed crystal malt that was way darker than I realised, it was a chocolate malt. This means that my ‘pale ale’ is going to be a lot darker. I guess it’s just ‘ale’ now. Second lesson learnt.

After steeping the grains for a while I had a really dark wort, which took another hour and a half to reach boiling point. If I’m being completely honest, I’m not even sure I ever reached boiling point. I certainly never reached a vigorous boil. It only managed to get to a simmer, with small bubbles coming out of the wort, making a really gentle boil. I am guessing this is OK, because it is the heat which is converting sugars, not the actual act of boiling. That’s what I tell myself at night. I can’t have wasted all that money on ingredients…

So a gentle simmer was all I could get, so I added the malt extract and started timing the boil then added the tasty tasty hops. Just a little sidenote; I got hops in my nose from smelling them, and my faced twitched for the rest of the day, which was weird. Yes. I snorted hops accidentally.

After the boil had finished, I cooled down the wort in my sink. Which is when I learnt lesson number 3 – I either need a bigger sink or a wort cooler. It took about an hour for the wort to cool, and this seems way too long.

Anyway, I pitched the yeast and now it is fermenting in my room. I wasn’t sure at first but I had a cheeky check last week and saw that there was a ton of foam from the yeast, so fingers crossed all is well.

Only time will tell, so in the meantime I’m gonna sit around drinking other people’s beers. This isn't a good hobby for impatient people.

Edit: Reddit user exige1981 pointed out that the boil isn't for converting sugars, that is what the mash etc is for. The boil in extract is just to extract hoppy goodness. Here's HOPing it worked!

Brew me.

So as tempting as it is to jump right in and tackle a doppelbock or an Imperial IPA, I think I will start with a basic APA (American pale ale). I like APAs, and from what I have read they are one of the easiest to make. I’ve looked around for some simple recipes, and the one at seriouseats.com is the one I’m going to go for.

• 5.5lbs of Dry Light

Malt Extract

• 0.5lbs Crystal 20L

• 0.5lbs American 6 row

• 0.5oz Centennial Hops – 60 mins

• 1oz Cascade Hops – 15 mins

• 1oz Centennial Hops – 15 mins

• 1oz Cascade Hops – Flame out

• 0.5oz Centennial Hops – Flame out

• 11.5 gram pack of Safale US-05

It’s a pretty simple extract brew, meaning that the first step of mashing and sparging the whole grains is cut out, and we can just use an extract of the sugars. The seriouseats.com recipe starts with a steeping section, where some of the grains are steeped in warm water to extract more flavour and a better texture in the beer. The crystal and American 6 row malt used to steep is basically a way of having more body/‘mouthfeel’, and adding to the depth of flavour of the beer. In the end I couldn’t get hold of any 6 row, so I’m just using slightly more crystal malt. Sue me.

After the steeping we go to the boil, where the malt sugars are boiled with hops for bitterness and aroma. The recipe I am following uses the classic American hops: centennial and cascade. Centennial, cascade and Columbus are known as ‘the three c’s’ and are the cornerstones of an ‘American’ style ale. The flowery, grapefruit-y, citrusy notes are right there when you take the first sip of an APA. The ‘time’ next to the hops in the recipe is how long the hops should be in the beer, in a 60 minute boil. For example, there should be 0.5oz of centennial hops added right at the start of the boil. When the boiling is done, the wort is cooled and the yeast is pitched. Then it’s popped in a fermentor, and left for two or three weeks. Then we have beer. Awww yes.

The recipe, for anyone who wants a read: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/01/homebrewing-pale-ale-for-beginners-extract.html

Ready... Steady... BREW!

OK, I’m going to make a confession. Until a few years ago, I didn’t even drink beer. I didn’t understand what the fuss was. Why was the entire world obsessed with beer? I was a cider drinker. If there was no cider, I would drink spirits. If there were no spirits, then it would be wine. And at the end of the list, a few steps below Bailey’s, there was beer as a last resort. But then I got a student job in a craft beer pub in Bristol.

Every so often when I bullshitted a little bit about what the flavour profiles for each beers were, one of the ‘beer geek’ customers would call me out. So I decided to try some of the beers; then I could at least talk about them. And suddenly, it hit me. I don’t hate beer. I just dislike shit beer, and good beer is out there. The flavour from the fresh vibrant American pale ales and chocolatey stouts was like a revelation. This wasn’t the beer I knew and hated, this was the beer I didn’t know and actually really liked!

Craft beer skyrocketed from the bottom of my drinks list straight to the top. I started to order beers when I was out, trying to get different beers each time I ordered. I wanted to drink as many different craft beers as I could (with my limited student funds). After a while I even ordered shitty beer over cider, although I still try and stick to beers with some flavour.

On this ‘beer discovery journey’ I continued to work at the craft beer pub, where it was often completely empty because it was an expensive bar in a student area. I filled the day with sitting around, and flicking through some of the beer books that decorated the shelves. One of the books was on how to brew beer.

I have always loved cooking, and putting together ingredients to make the exact flavour profile that you want in your mouth. Brewing seemed like a sort of cooking, where you followed a recipe to make the exact beer you want. Actually, I guess that is exactly what brewing is. Duh. I started to think about all these different flavour profiles that I liked, and how I could come up with new flavours for craft beers. I started reading a bit more and figured I could definitely enjoy brewing.

…

So that was a year and a half ago. And I have done nothing but read and say I am going to brew ‘sometime soon’. Well that time is now, and I have recently bought a load of beer making paraphernalia from Wilko’s (a big UK store), ready for my first brewing experience. I thought that rather go through this process alone, I would write a bit of a blog on starting brewing, from the first brew onwards. Then every fuck-up and faux pas will be a nice warning example to everyone who is starting after me. Like I’m testing a fighter jet for the first time. Apart from way more chilled out than that. Inaccurate similes aside, if you are reading this then I hope you enjoy my first venture into brewing.