Batch #2

Yesterday I decided to brew Batch #2 before I even was able to taste my first batch. Taking a risk but I need to keep plowing through so I can become a pro at this thing. So I went to brew shop and decided on a British Pub Porter. I had gone to a Home Brew 101 class in December and they gave us samples of that and I liked it a lot. On a little tangent, I told the clerk that the jugs I had bought last week didn't come with lids. He was being a douche bag and saying that since he wasn't there last week he doesn't know that I didn't get them. Are you fucking serious? I'm going to go in there and try to rip off the shop of four 25 cent lids? Whatever man. So I broke the bank and bought one dollar worth of lids.


Things went much better this brew than they did for Batch #1. I steeped the grains in three quarts of 160 degree water, then sparged the grains with another three quarts. From there I added enough water to the boil pot to bring it to about 3.5 gallons and set it to boil. Once it reached the boil I added the salts. The salts are added to give the water in the beer similar makeup of the water from where the recipe was conceived. In this instance, it was the Thames River that we are trying to duplicate. I also added the first addition of hops.

After 40 minutes I added the second and last set of hops. Many beers have another hops addition. However, Porter style beer is known for its malt flavor. So only adding two additions of hops helps keep that maltiness that you're looking for in a Porter.

At 60 minutes on boil, I cut the gas and set about cooling the wort down. Luckily I did it much faster than my first batch. The first time I think it took around an hour and it wasn't even fully cooled. This time I had the sink set up properly with an ice bath and I even added ice to the wort to cool it down even faster. I've been told by home brewers that adding ice to the wort may not be a good idea because you can't guarantee pure ice and any bacteria in it may ruin your beer. I believe the ice maker who says it's filtered ice, so I'm taking a gamble. It only took me 10 minutes this time.


I added the wort to the Ale Pale, which is a plastic bucket. I added enough water to bring it to the 5 gallon mark. Then I added the yeast, closed the lid and put on the air lock. Now it's just sit and wait time.

Phrase of the Day (times two)

Well you may have asked, "James, you say you're brewing an ale, but what exactly is an ale?" That's a good question, thank you. So today's phrase of the day will define ALE and its common counterpart, LAGER.

ALE - Beers distinguished by use of top fermenting yeast strains, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The top fermenting yeast perform at warmer temperatures than do yeast's used to brew lager beer, and their byproducts are more evident in taste and aroma. Fruitiness and esters are often part of an ale's character

LAGER - Beers produced with bottom fermenting yeast strains, Saccharomyces uvarum (or carlsbergensis) at colder fermentation temperatures than ales. This cooler environment inhibits the natural production of esters and other byproducts, creating a crisper tasting product

Most beers you will drink probably fall into one of these categories.

Finally to the bottle

Well, Batch #1 made it to bottle this weekend. That was a fun experience. I went and bought a dozen 22oz bottles and 4 one-gallon jugs. It seemed the most economical and made the most sense as far as consumption.

I boiled one cup of water and added the priming sugar to that and stirred till it dissolved. Then I added that to a bucket and siphoned the beer into that bucket to mix up with the sugar. For those that may not know, the priming sugar is added so that the yeast left in the beer will have something to eat in the bottle. The end result when you open it up is carbonation, something every good beer should have.

I then filled up the 22oz bottles and as I was about to start to fill up the jugs I noticed they didn't come with lids. Shit. I didn't have the time then to go back and get lids, so I improvised. I had some two liter bottles lying around, so I cleaned and sanitized them. Then I finished my bottling. They need to sit for two weeks and then it drinky, drinky.

Phrase of the Day (Occasionally)

It has been brought to my attention that many people are probably not familiar with some of the terms I may have used in previous posts. So to make this blog more informative I have decided to add a Phrase of the Day to most posts and maybe the occasional extra one if there's really nothing else going on.

So today's term is "sparge". According to merriam-webster.com, sparge means "Sprinkle, Bespatter; especially: Spray". What does that mean in the world of brewing? After you steep your grains in water, you pour that water into your kettle. Then you take some more hot water and pour that over the top of the grains. This gets the maximum amount of flavor from the grains.

For Batch #1, I steeped the grains in three quarts of 140 degree water for 45 minutes. I then poured that pot through a cheesecloth, allowing the liquid to enter the kettle and leaving the grains behind. Then I took three more quarts of 140 degree water and sparged the grains.

I hope this is useful information and expect more in the future.

To condition or not condition, that is the question

Well Batch #1 has passed its two week of fermentation. Now I have to decide whether I condition the beer or not. Conditioning is (from what I understand) where you move the beer from the fermentation container to another container and just let it sit there. The other option is to just bottle the beers. I've been told conditioning isn't necessary, and if I had my druthers I'd skip it as well, but being off for two weeks means there isn't room in the budget to buy bottles yet. So it looks like I'll condition my beer. I'm not totally sure what this will accomplish but it buys me time.