Classic English Pale Ale - July 2008

My first batch of homemade beer. I am using the Brewer's Best Classic English Pale Ale ingredient kit from L.D. Carlson. I am also using their equipment kit.

If you want to read the steps involved, it's on their site. It's not terribly exciting. I took a couple of pictures anyway.

Here's the info I'm tracking.
- Brewed on July 13, 2008
- original gravity: 1.042
- final gravity: 1.018
- Bottled July 21, 2008
- Recipe says ready to go in 2 weeks, best after aging another 3 weeks after that

Notes:
- I had to repitch some yeast a few days into the fermentation. I don't know if I added the original batch at too high of a temperature, or if my brewing conditions were too warm or what. It seemed to help. I also got a floating thermometer, so that should be a bit handy.
- I could have saved time in the initial brewing step by doing my sterilization while waiting for my boil.
- I used to the dishwasher to clean my bottles in the following manner: Firstly, my bottles were well rinsed. I then did a full wash when I had a about 2 1/2 cases (a full load). I put them all back in boxes and then in a big rubbermaid container I already had in storage. The day before I was ready to bottle, I put them into the dishwasher again, and did the full cycle with no soap. I figure this would take care of any soap residue from the first wash, plus my dishwasher has a sanitize cycle, so this saves me a lot of bottle washing. Hopefully it worked. One caveat here: long-neck bottles don't fit on the top shelf. Must drink more Newcastle.
- The final bottling took about 2 1/2 hours start to finish. Watching the water & sugar boil seemed to take forever (watched pots and all that), the bottling was fine, but the kicker was the cleaning when done. Everything but my stock pot was dirty.
- I put the bathmat from the bathroom in front of the kitchen sink, since I was getting water everywhere and the linoleum was getting quite slippery.
- The old "rubber band on the sink sprayer" gag worked well for washing my bottling pail in the sink. The other I just filled from the bathtub faucet. (Not while bathing; I am not Kramer.)
- Must have more towels clean and ready for next time. Cloth napkins not absorbent enough.
- If you like really flat, really warm beer, a glass of the stuff going into the bottles is right up your alley. It's like licking the spoon.

Yeah, so that's that. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I'm thinking about an IPA for round two.

UPDATE: I cracked open a bottle or two the other night. Not bad. A bit fruity- which I read can be a side effect of a too-warm fermentation temperature. For my first brew, however, I'm pretty happy.

Round two begins this weekend maybe?