True Brew IPA

Tonight, after much procrastination (much), I brewed my second batch of beer. I used a kit again, but this time I feel like I had a better idea of what I was doing. I also wrote down how long it took, so next time I'll know, and be able to judge if I have time or not. Here's the info:

• I used an IPA kit from Crosby & Baker
• Began boiling water about 6:30 pm
• Sanitized what I needed while waiting for the boil (big time saver)
• It took about 45 minutes to get the water boiling. It was about 2 gallons
• Blah, blah, blah, following instructions...
• Beer fermenting and all cleaned up at 9:50pm
• Original gravity 1.048- a little low, but oh well

Total time to brew: ~3 1/2 hours and bottle of merlot.

My biggest improvement over the first brew was starting the boil before sanitizing the fermentation gear. The initial boil takes 45 minutes, so there's plenty of time for sanitizing and dinner if everything is clean to start with, which it should be (and was).

Another big plus was the fact that I had a bunch of new tunes from emusic from yesterday. Tonight's soundtrack consisted of an EP and a missing track of Dashboard Confessional, Minor Threat's "First Two 7"s", Tagada Jones' "Le Feu Aux Poudres", and The Gaslight Anthem's "The '59 Sound". I like emusic since I get to gamble on bands (since the music is cheap and it's a fixed number of tracks per month so I'm forced to get something), and this month the two gambles (Tagada Jones and The Gaslight Anthem) were big, big wins. I found out about both of them from some random punk internet radio channel, and they are both great. The Gaslight Anthem is somewhere between Springsteen and The Killers, and definitely New Jersey, and they are excellent; I think anyone reading this would like them. That's three, maybe four, people total, but I think you would all dig them. If you want a copy, shoot me an email. Tagada Jones is a hardcore band from France and also excellent, but in a completely different way. Same goes for them. I'm kinda rediscovering hardcore punk, and really appreciating it for the first time, I think. Also, that DIY attitude is a great soundtrack for any home project. As for Dashboard Confessional, well, I'm not ashamed to admit I have feelings. Maybe that's what being grown up is all about? I think that has a lot to do with it.

I could have used all this information ten years ago. Given my genes, the best part of my life is getting shorter in a painfully real way every day. But then, I'm living it, so you got to love that.

All in all, I wouldn't change it for the world. Unless this batch of beer comes out less than spectacular. In that case, I would change recipes. :)

Next up: Homemade recipe for pumpkin ale!

ADDENDUM:

Notes from racking:

• Began santizing about 7:30
• Beer in bottles and equipment soaking at 9:00
• Final gravity 1.020 (which is a bit high, given the recipe)
• All put away at 9:30 (well, some stuff was drying

Total time to rack: ~2 hours and bottle of Newcastle.

The racking was a lot more steady, in terms of doing stuff. Really the final soak was my only break, and that wasn't much of one. Not a bad way to spend a couple of Monday nights, all told. For some reason I have gotten a low alcohol content with both these recipes. The first time, I figured I just screwed up. This time, however, I was quite careful at each step with sanitizing, temperatures, and general instruction following. I wonder if I've just gotten some sub-par yeast or maybe not enough sugars? I will have to look into it. And honestly, if this is my only problem, I'm cool with that. I don't like the super-strong stuff anyway, so as long as it's tasty, who cares if it's only 3.5%-4.0%?

I guess we'll see how it is in a month, eh?