DJ has been wanting to brew beer himself for years. Last Saturday he knocked one thing off his bucket list when he went to Love 2 Brew http://www.love2brew.com/ and brewed a beer called Juice Box Rye IPA. Unfortunately, due to babies, I was not able to go. I really wanted to take pictures but it was a 3 -4 hour process and I did not relish the thought of wearing the baby for that length of time while trying to take pictures. Our friend Liz volunteered to join DJ and document the process while keeping him company. DJ likes having a buddy around when he does stuff and we haven't gotten to spend much time with Liz lately. So it was a perfect choice to have her go with him. DJ made 15 gallons of beer. Yes, 15 gallons. What does one do with 15 gallons of beer? I'm not sure but I will let you know! It will be ready in 3 weeks. I suppose we will drink it till its gone, however long that takes. A tough task, but we are up for the challenge. So with that introduction I will turn this post over to DJ! Liz and I putting the grain into the mesh bag. It looks like a big tea strainer sock thing. As soon as the water got to the right temperature, the grain sock went in. We get the extracts ready as we look over the instructions. As we wait for for the next step, I sample some of their beer. This was an American Style Ale. Wow, It goes down really easy. This could be trouble. The grain is done doing whatever it does, so Thomas (my brewing instructor) got the bag out for me. I get the extract ready. It's really thick and gooey. Time to dump in the sugar. I never realized how much sugar goes into beer. Time to stir it all up. It looks white because it is foamy on top. Insert caption here Time for the Mosaic Hops. Liz and I could not stop sniffing them. They smelled like citric goodness. Hops go in. More extract More hops More sugar getting ready to cool down the brew. This machine cools down the beer quickly getting the yeast packets ready Pouring the brew into the buckets it will ferment in. This cool spout is so air can escape. There is a disinfectant in it so bacteria can't get in. Testing to figure out the potential alcohol level. Tasting my brew in its raw form. It was sweet and bitter at the same time. In 2 weeks, I will go back to the store and move the beer to another container and add more hops. I'm exited to see how it is coming along at that point. It will be completely ready in 3 weeks.
I've really enjoyed my experience so far. The guys at Love 2 Brew are really friendly, very knowledgeable and accommodating. Liz and I asked tons of questions and got some great insight. We learned lots about beer. There is a lot of downtime in between steps that we did not show. It took a total of almost 4 hours, but it only felt like an hour because we had such a great time. Note from April: DJ bought a homebrew kit. Once we are done drinking this batch, I will attempt to brew it at home and blog it. This should be interesting.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm so tired. The children are so not tired. |