Homebrewing

A bunch of people have asked me about the process of homebrewing and I decided that you really need pictures to understand what is happening. Here are just a few quick snapshots to give you a sense of what is going on in our apartment:



These are the grains. They are literally grains that are mixed and cracked. For us beginners you pick and buy a recipe and they give you everything you need.



You steep the grains in a large mesh bag. We didn't have a proper bag the first time we brewed and had a rather hilarious conversation about the use of some argyle stockings, pantyhose, an athletic sock, medical gauze and a bag that some stereo equipment came in. The second time around we bought what looked like a knit cotton stocking. I still vote for the argyle stockings but I am seldom right in these situations.



You remove the steeped grains and then add a whole bunch of other stuff provided by the nice store down the street. You choose a recipe and it feels like a cross between cooking a really fussy and messy recipe and a chemistry experiment. As a chemistry teacher I find the instructions provided by the nice store down the street horribly written and lacking key details. I am tempted to bring back my annotated instructions and offer to fix their recipes. We have a bunch of books and the internet is a good resource but we are still winging it a large portion of the time.



You spend a lot of time sitting next to it as I am demonstrating in the picture. The stakes at this point are really high because you have a large pot filled with boiling liquid as sticky as melted sugar. When it bubbles over it bakes on and takes a lot of scrubbing and cursing to get it off. Luckily, you can completely dismantle our stovetop, a feature that I was unaware of at the time of purchase but am eternally grateful for after this experience.

The house also smells like a brewery which is a mix of wet dog and wet farm. If you grew up in NJ, you may recognize it as the smell of Newark Airport, which has a brewing facility right next door.




Finally you transfer it to this lovely glass carboy. There are a lot more steps along the way but I only included those for which I have good pictures. Our first batch, a Belgian, is taking a time out to "think about what is has done" (according to my lovely husband). We bottled the chocolate stout last weekend. It tasted like beer and will hopefully carbonate properly (unlike our belgian). If it's good we'll share with everyone, if it's bad, we will never speak of it again.