Mr. Beer Brewer

Michael used his birthday gift cards to finally buy the stuff to brew his own beer at home. He's wanted to do this for some time now, so now he is officially a home brewer!

Our friends Josh & Julie came over yesterday. Josh brews his own beer too, so he was able to help Michael through the first batch. This first batch was a "nut brown ale" and should be ready to drink in about a month.

Here is the process:

Steeping the bag of grain

Michael & Josh - watching the boiling pot

Me and Julie - supervisors on duty :)

Pouring in the barley malt extract

Adding the hopps (looked and smelled like rabbit food)

Activating the yeast

Pouring the wart (unfermented beer mixture) into the 5 gallon fermenter

Measuring the alcohol level - this beer should be around 5.25%.

Carrying the fermenter down to our cool basement for the next couple of weeks

And here is a short video that shows the fermentation in process. Basically the yeast is doing its thing and it causes the mixture to release gas. So, the little contraption on the top allows the gas to escape without anything coming back in.