This is my first beer being brewed in my own home. Not the first I've ever taken part in brewing. When I was in my early teens, I bought my father a brewing kit and we made a semi-decent pale ale. Then there were a couple a year or two ago: a weiss (I liked it, but it was not incredible), and a bock (which was very tasty.) But, I brewed in each case with a seasoned hand at brewing, someone who had brewed several times in the past year successfully, and maybe ruined a couple and knows what not to do. This is my first where I'm really in control of my brew, have nobody to watch over, with my own stuff in my own home. It's also my most complicated brew. Honestly, I was a bit scared. I figured I need to expect this will go badly, because if I don't expect that, and it goes badly, I might not want to brew another. Here's how I did it, or rather, what has happened so far since I don't yet have a finished brew: it will be bottled in a couple of weeks.
Equipment
I got a brewing starter kit, basically two giant plastic buckets, some hoses, a big brush, a hydrolock, a hydrometer, a little booklet. Besides these things I was told I'd need a pot to boil the ingredients, at least 20 quarts, and I got a book on brewing: Charlie Papazian's The Joy of Home Brewing. When I realized I needed it I bought some large strainers.
Ingredients
This is the serious stuff. I bought this all at Brew and Grow, just off of Cortland, near Ashland, on a little street called Besly. The people there run a garden shop, and also brew beer, sell all of the equipment and usually very high quality ingredients for beermaking. Wine making, if you like. Or Absinthe. Just ask them, they love to talk about it and give you a taste of their recent brew. Lots of words of instruction, I am indebted. They also gave me the recipe, which, with their consultation, I modified. Here's the stuff in my Belgian Style Tripel, which I'm tentatively naming the Day Tripel. Shoelaces was a runner-up.
- 1 Pound of dark Munich Malt. Great stuff, smelled fantastic.
- 2 Pounds of Pilsen Light Malt Extract. This one goes to my neighborhood, Pilsen, in the southwest side of Chicago, but like all powder malt... it's a fine, sugary powder that clumps and dissolves.
- 6 Pounds of Extra-Light malt extract.
- 1 Pound of Corn Sugar. This is basically confectioners sugar, all made from corn, and 100% dextrose, therefore completely fermentable.
- 1.5 Ounces of Styrian Goldings hops. Really really good smelling little leaves and pedals from really beautiful hop flowers I imagine.
- 1 Ounce of UK Fuggles hop plugs. These are like over-thick coins that smell like your favorite IPA, they fall apart in boiling wort, and flood it with flavor.
- 1 package of Wyeast labs Belgian Abbey II yeast.
I suppose its worth mentioning that at bottling, I'll use some corn sugar, and that the water I used was about one half spring water (the kind that come in gallon jugs in the grocery store,) and one half Chicago tap.
The Process
This really started with me and a few good friends Crushing the hell out of the Munich Malt. It smelled pretty fantastic as we loaded the crushed up, though not pulverized grain, into some cheesecloth sacks. I then turned the heat on 3 gallons, two of which were store bought, and put the grains in as it was heating. Before the boil I turned off the heat, and let the sacks of malt sit for about half an hour longer, agitating them by dipping them in and out. Basically, I made malt tea. I brought the water to a boil again and began to dissolve into it three pounds extra light malt, and 1 pound pilsen malt. This was stirred and left to boil for about 45 minutes before adding first the hops, and then the rest of the malt. I was careful, but the wort just about boiled over after I put the first extract in.
I love the smell of beer making. I walked out of my apartment for 10 minutes, and was assaulted by the smells when I walked in. Its somewhere between the smell of freshly baked bread, and ... well, a really good beer sans the smell of ethyl alcohol.
Back to the brewing. After this, I had to sparge the wort: sparging is a lot like putting the wort through a strainer. Actually, that's pretty much it. Well, two strainers since the ones I had on hand weren't very large. We used a sauceban as a ladle and sparged away into my bucket fermenter. All that was left was pitching the yeast. Which is like adding the yeast to the wort. Actually, that's basically it.
So, about that. It's about this time I notice that the yeast is supposed to be added to the wort below 78° F. Problem is I was starting from really hot wort and adding only a couple gallons of water (however much it took to eventually equal five gallons) that was only as cool as my plumbing system could produce. I waited hours and hours with that bucket on top of an air conditioning vent until I just had to go to sleep... and it was probably still too hot when I pitched the yeast.
I then let it sit for about a week and a half. and transferred it from one vessel to another. Both of these were five gallon buckets. I tasted it at this point, and my beer is doing fantastic. More on this beer when I bottle this and start brewing the next one with my friend Joshua, his choice of brew was an espresso stout.
