Bottling Day

Tomorrow marks 2 weeks of fermentation! That means it's about time to bottle! I suppose I should run to Eats and grab a bottling tube, but I doubt I'll have the time to actually get around to bottling everything until Thursday. I'll update once it's done!

Irish Stout

When Brittany came up last weekend, my roommates and I were talking about brewing and making wine and she said she wanted to learn to how to make her own wine, so I took her to Eats, Blacksburg's organic produce and brewing supply store. While I was there, helping Britt Britt get everything she needed to get started, I broke down and bought myself a can of malt extract. I know, malt extract, but I don't have a lot of time right now, so I figured I'd just make it as simple as possible on myself.

I decided on a stout instead of a porter, because I plan on brewing a Pumpkin' Porter here in the next few weeks. On my way back from Physics on Tuesday, I realized I had about four hours of downtime before I had to head over to Lauren's and begin studying for Statics, so I decided that I had the perfect opportunity to get some brewing done.

I set up and got everything sanitized and ready. My new equipment at Tech consists of nice 10 gallon (I think) brew pot, a siphoning hose (no racking stem), some old sanitizing agents, a lot of empty bottles, and a Red Baron capper. Jason got all of this from his neighbor, who's son used to brew. But I digress - so everything's clean and I start boiling the can of extract. I added about two cups of brown sugar and a one cup of white sugar to try and raise the gravity of the boil. After it began to boil, I decided that I didn't feel like I was brewing if I just sat there and boiled the extract, so I ran to Eats and picked up an ounce of Fuggle hops to use as flavoring and aroma hops. I added 1/2 ounce with 15 minutes left and a 1/4 ounce at knockout.

I cooled it in the bath tub and then siphoned the wort and water into the carboy until it was at the 5 gallon mark. I mix the wort thoroughly and then pitched the yeast. I didn't have a blow off hose, so I capped the carboy using a rubber stopper and a S-airlock. Hearing stories of airlocks being blown off due to pressure, but I figured it'd last through the night. I was wrong. I woke up the next morning to find foam and wort all over the utility closet. Fortunately, it was still fermenting and the CO2 it was produces is enough to protect it from bacterial infection. So, after class, I ran to lowes to buy a blowoff hose and got back into place.

And now, it's still fermenting. It's Day 4 and it's still kicking off CO2 everyonce in awhile. Primary fermentation should be done soon and I think I'll rack it and let it ferment for another week or so. Can't wait to try it! (This is #5 total, #1 in Blacksburg)

Cheers!

A New Direction

So, I think I've finally figured out what I want to do with my blog, and I've decided to turn it into my Beer Blog! I can write down brewing notes, recipes, plans, and whatever I feel like writing about beer.

I guess here goes...