TrojanMan
Well-Known Member
Yesterday, I finally did it.
I've always enjoyed drinking good beer and I have really appreciated the craft beer 'boom' of late. I've always wanted to brew my own but just have never gotten around to it. It was always on my "tomorrow" list. Unfortunate, but that's just how it was.
I am happy to announce that I now have five gallons of beer currently fermenting in my basement!
I went out, bought Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy, read it cover-to-cover, picked up a starter kit, two cans of extract, some Hallertauer pellets, some yeast and all the other essentials. I'll be bottling into half-gallon growlers the first time out for convenience and simplicity.
I've made what I *hope* will be a decent Weisen, a fairly easy starter beer, I figure. I decided that I wasn't satisfied with the recipe as-stated so I added in a half ounce each of orange peel and crushed anise pods to the boil. We shall see how it turns out, I suppose.
Why post? Just to say "hello" I suppose. I plan to skim information off the posts here so I might as well introduce myself. It's only polite, right?
My funny first brewsession surprise story:
Apparently, it's impossible to have everything go perfectly according to plan when brewing beer. As an engineer, I'd like to think that I have fairly good chemistry skills and I'm not a bad cook, either. I thought, you know, maybe it's just a myth, maybe nothing will go wrong. It won't happen to me...
Wrong.
My wife and I had just sparged and chilled the wort down to about 72*F. I was preparing a few ounces of water to rehydrate the yeast and trying to get the temperature right before I dumped the little fellas in there. I was using my nice probe/digital thermometer and just as I was approaching temperature... the probe broke. More specifically, the thermocouple element had enough and decided it wasn't going to work anymore.
NO!!! I was that close... 10 more minutes! You couldn't have waited just 10 minutes to break?! ^@%& %#((ing #$^#!
Pfew, OK, calm down, take it easy... nothing to get excited about... I'll just get another thermometer. Except, as we found out, it was the only thermometer in the house capable of reading below 100*F. Of course it was, you know?
We ran to the store, got another thermometer (actually, we got two, just in case.:cross: ) came back, pitched the yeast, closed it up and stuck it in our basement beer closet. Later last night, I was seeing some faint action in the airlock so I think it's working! :rockin:
Orange/Anise Weisen
OG: 1.050 SG
FG: 1.016 SG
Deliciousness: TBD
After my first endeavor, I have discovered that I will probably end up spending way too much money and time constructing better equipment than my inadequately-sized 16qt. pot and a few plastic buckets. Oh well. Let's hope the beer is worth it.
UPDATE: Racked to secondary after 8 days. FG is a little higher than I'd like but it had leveled off so I saw no need to wait. Smells FANTASTIC! Tastes really odd without carbonation and being about 60*F. That said, once it's fizzy and chilled I think it'll be great. A little bit cloudy, even for a Weisen, I'm hoping the secondary will bring that down a bit.
Made pretzels with a little bit of the yeast cake. That dough is chillin' in my fridge right now so we'll see how they are come dinnertime.
Note for dough making: Put some flour on your hands FIRST. It's a bit sticky otherwise. :cross:
I've always enjoyed drinking good beer and I have really appreciated the craft beer 'boom' of late. I've always wanted to brew my own but just have never gotten around to it. It was always on my "tomorrow" list. Unfortunate, but that's just how it was.
I am happy to announce that I now have five gallons of beer currently fermenting in my basement!
I went out, bought Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy, read it cover-to-cover, picked up a starter kit, two cans of extract, some Hallertauer pellets, some yeast and all the other essentials. I'll be bottling into half-gallon growlers the first time out for convenience and simplicity.
I've made what I *hope* will be a decent Weisen, a fairly easy starter beer, I figure. I decided that I wasn't satisfied with the recipe as-stated so I added in a half ounce each of orange peel and crushed anise pods to the boil. We shall see how it turns out, I suppose.
Why post? Just to say "hello" I suppose. I plan to skim information off the posts here so I might as well introduce myself. It's only polite, right?
My funny first brewsession surprise story:
Apparently, it's impossible to have everything go perfectly according to plan when brewing beer. As an engineer, I'd like to think that I have fairly good chemistry skills and I'm not a bad cook, either. I thought, you know, maybe it's just a myth, maybe nothing will go wrong. It won't happen to me...
Wrong.My wife and I had just sparged and chilled the wort down to about 72*F. I was preparing a few ounces of water to rehydrate the yeast and trying to get the temperature right before I dumped the little fellas in there. I was using my nice probe/digital thermometer and just as I was approaching temperature... the probe broke. More specifically, the thermocouple element had enough and decided it wasn't going to work anymore.
NO!!! I was that close... 10 more minutes! You couldn't have waited just 10 minutes to break?! ^@%& %#((ing #$^#!
Pfew, OK, calm down, take it easy... nothing to get excited about... I'll just get another thermometer. Except, as we found out, it was the only thermometer in the house capable of reading below 100*F. Of course it was, you know?
We ran to the store, got another thermometer (actually, we got two, just in case.:cross: ) came back, pitched the yeast, closed it up and stuck it in our basement beer closet. Later last night, I was seeing some faint action in the airlock so I think it's working! :rockin:
Orange/Anise Weisen
OG: 1.050 SG
FG: 1.016 SG
Deliciousness: TBD
After my first endeavor, I have discovered that I will probably end up spending way too much money and time constructing better equipment than my inadequately-sized 16qt. pot and a few plastic buckets. Oh well. Let's hope the beer is worth it.
UPDATE: Racked to secondary after 8 days. FG is a little higher than I'd like but it had leveled off so I saw no need to wait. Smells FANTASTIC! Tastes really odd without carbonation and being about 60*F. That said, once it's fizzy and chilled I think it'll be great. A little bit cloudy, even for a Weisen, I'm hoping the secondary will bring that down a bit.
Made pretzels with a little bit of the yeast cake. That dough is chillin' in my fridge right now so we'll see how they are come dinnertime.
Note for dough making: Put some flour on your hands FIRST. It's a bit sticky otherwise. :cross:
