The First Brew Day

I apologize for my lack of consistency in writing. I am not a writer nor do I pretend to be one on the internet. I do realized I tend to change from past tense to present tense in my storytelling. I am sorry but thankful for you taking to the time to read.  You may not learn anything from it and if you do, please let me know. If you do have any questions, pleast let me know. Anyhow, enjoy.


Once I was home I had realized a key item that I had forgotten to purchase, a hydrometer. Without the hydrometer I would not know my Original Gravity or my Final Gravity. I had an idea approximately what the OG was from the recipe. But I did have a book and I read said book and learned. I was inspired. Instead of waiting until I had a hydrometer I went ahead and started brewing.  Sunday morning, valentines day, I began laying out all my equipment on the table. I began feeling a little nervous but just told myself "relax, its just beer" ( I later found a similar mantra from Charlie Papazian's book The Joy of Homebrewing). The first thing I figured I'd start with, since there was little room for error, was measure out my carboy to the 5 gallon mark. As I was filling it I adhered my fermometer to the carboy at the 3 gallon mark which I figured was centered and would give me the most accurate reading of temperature. Now during the brewing process I learned that a good time to sanitize and mark the 5 gallons would be during the 60 min boil, for future reference. So then I had a carboy full of water. I took this moment to try out my racking cane. I didn't know why there was a cap on the end of it so I took it off and started a siphon. Now afterwards I watched some Youtube video's of other home brewers racking their beer and all their canes had that little black cap on. So I started thinking. . . maybe its so it won't suck up the trube that would be almost directly under the cane? It sounds like a good guess to me so i'm gonna roll with that. (if i'm wrong and someone knows please leave a comment and let me know). So I siphoned out the water, that was exciting. Then decided the next thing I'm going to do is wash and sanitize everything, a key and probably most important step in the brewing process.
TO BE CONTINUED. . . . .

A Journey in Brewing Part 2.1

Here is the recipe of the first beer I brewed-

Lizard Lips Pale Ale

OG: 1.054

1/2 lb Crystal grains, 20L

1/2 lb Carapils grains

7 lbs Light malt extract

1 oz Perle hops (60min)

1 oz Cascade hops (20min)

1 pkt Irish Moss

1 1/2 oz Cascade hops (2min)

YEAST- Danstar's Windsor Ale Yeast

I intend on bottling Sunday, Feb. 28th, and after a few weeks of lagering I will have some results to share with you.

A Journey in Brewing Part 2

When we arrived back at Herman's and the first thing I told him was 'I told you we'd be back'.  He was surprised. He informed me that whenever he heard that from customers they were never to be seen again. I had told him I wanted to buy his kit and a kettle.

Kit Contents

1 6gal. glass carboy

1 6gal plastic bottling bucket

1 racking cane

1 bottle filler

1 carboy scrub brush

1 bottle brush

1 emily bottle capper

1/4lb bottle caps

1 reusable nylon grain bag

1 stopper w/air-lock

1 plastic non-melt spoon

Io-STAR Sanitizer

T.S.P.

I was excited to purchase this kit, for it came with a Glass Carboy. I had been picturing starting out with plastic buckets. However, I had been picturing starting out with at least an 8 gal kettle, preferably 10gal, and a burner.  I wanted to be able to boil in the garage or outside. I wanted a larger kettle so I didn't have to worry about boil over and have room for when I decide to start doing full boils. Charlie (the gentleman who was working) had brought to my attention that if I went that big now I'm also going to want a wort chiller too for moving that much hot wort in from the garage to my kitchen sink to chill will be a task. So I pondered upon this. . . It would have gotten pretty spendy, more than I had budgeted when I was at Barnes & Nobles. I then chose to go with the 5 gal pot he had for $40. With this decision I can boil on my kitchen stove for now.  Upon checkout he asked if I wanted to buy an ingredient kit of some sort. I had not thought about this actually, ha. My initial response was that I wanted to take all this home and familiarize myself with it. He talked me into it with little effort. I stood looking at the kits when he asked what kind of beer I drink, to help me choose a style to brew. I then rambled off a list of styles and brewery's I prefer and he looked shocked. I think he underestimated my love for beer and didn't know which style to recommend. I decided on a pale ale recipe he had. He called it his lawnmower beer and had no answer for me when I asked what it would be similar too. So now here I am, about to purchase the equipment I needed, my kettle for boiling, and my ingredients for brewing for under $200. I was satisfied and excited. Time to head home and start brewing.

A Journey in Brewing Part 1

I had brewed my first beer 1 week ago today. It was a joyous event. As much as I drink beer I have never been able to witness it in the stages of its creation. I had brewed a pale ale from extract and this is my story.

With a lot of help from The Brewing Network, and various websites I had learned about from their shows, I have been learning about the brewing process for quite sometime. I had been shopping online, never being able to get myself to order the equipment I needed. Then I had learned of a homebrew shop about an hour from here, in Central Point, OR, Hermans Homebrew Shop. I had decided to pay them a visit. I was overwhelmed a little at first. Being able to see all this product first hand and not just pictures in catalogs and onilne. He had a bundle package available for about $119 and I was seriously considering it, finally. However I continued to be overwhelmed and we (my fantastic girlfriend Jessica and I) left. We headed over to Barnes n' Nobles. There I found a newly expanded section on homebrewing. I purchased Sam Caligione's book Extreme Brewing and informed Jessica that I had decided that I wanted to buy all the equipment, I wanted to do this, take the next step in to the wonderful world of Beer.