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?

photo op

What are you people using for photo management on your computers? I can't use iPhoto anymore (due to the jump to ubuntu full time).

BTW: I started that little project tonight (got the rest of the parts this morning) since I was going to brew some beer (project #2) when I came to the realization that I did not have a thermometer for cooking. I am not done yet with the computer; details to come. I've taken a bunch of pictures already. Hence the question.

project updates

Ok, so in the last post you learned that I am now TV-less. I know now how the peoples of yesteryear discovered and invented. It's called "learning by doing". That is what I am engaging myself in. It's awesome.

I currently have two main projects in the works:

#1 Building a media computer
A while ago my [cheap-ass] DVD player died. I've been using my old powerbook as my iPod syncing source, downloaded movie player, and DVD player since then. What I really wanted, however, was a dedicated machine to do all this. The powerbook really wasn't up to the task. I've also decided that it's time for me to use open source as much as possible. My main computer at home is ubuntu already, so it's not too much of a jump. To build the machine. I'm basically following this guy's steps, minus the tuner card (since I have no input on that front anyway). I got one piece today, but UPS screwed up so I have to wait till tomorrow for the rest. What I have done in the meantime was to a) unlock my DRM tunes and audible.com books (not really that many tracks) and b) get my iPods to sync with amarok. Not too difficult, really. Hopefully I'll have that stuff running this week sometime.

#2. Brewing my own beer
This is pretty straightforward; I'm just following directions. I've got some friends who have done it, and I've been wanting too for a while now. I went to the modern brewer, got some stuff, and now I just need to get a big pot to boil in. It needs to be stainless or enameled steel. I'm leaning towards getting a turkey fryer for this use, since then I'd have one of those as well. For bottles, I collected all I need over the fourth. Right now, I just need the pot, I need to wash a bunch of stuff, and then I need to brew the wort and wait a little while. Should be fun.

I'll take pictures get the steps up here for both projects. Other than that, it's been a lot of reading, online and off. Some cooking. Even a little exercise. Honestly, I actually feel smarter without the TV constantly on. It's crazy.

Tashfeen wins the prize for first commenter in the last post. I'm going to name the prize as one free ticket to see Hellboy II, since we just made plans to go see it. Should be good; I'm really looking forward to Guillermo del Toro's directing. Megan will get the runner-up prize, which I have yet to figure what it is. I'll know it when I see it.