It’s been quite awhile since I brewed some beer but Etienne and I were both getting the itch to try our hand at it again. I have to say that my compressor on the kegerator has been acting up and Procrastinator Palmer is in full effect so I haven’t really got around to fixing it in the past year.
But the surefire way to kick my ass into high gear is to make a batch a beer.
I made a batch of scotch ale using my old equipment and to get back into the swing of things. It was a little hard to remember all the little steps, but it wasn’t an arduous task.
Sierra helping with our first batch of beer for the year.
The next week, I decided to get rid of a lot of my old stock that I had sitting around. A lot of grains and hops that have been accumulating for the past few years needed to be used!
I went to Brewtoad and figured out how to search by ingredients and found an interesting ale…the Christmas Ale! It also asked for cinammon sticks, ginger root and nutmeg. Sounds intriguing!
For Black Friday I splurged a little and bought myself a wort chiller so I can cool down the wort quickly (instead of letting it sit overnight). Mike also hooked me up with his old eight gallon brewpot which has a thermometer and a drain valve attached to it.
Come brew day, I was excited and ready to go! Sierra and I were on our own as Vero had gone for a haircut. We did have to drop by DeFalco’s to pick up a piece of PVC tubing for the wort chiller and a few hose clamps along the way, but that was a minor detour.
It’s always better to get all the ingredients ready beforehand!
I have to say, I learned a few lessons that day using some new equipment and having a helping hand from Sierra.
Lessons Learned
- While not impossible, it’s pretty well near impossible to make a batch of beer on your own while looking after a six month old. At one point I timed the addition of hops to the wort with the addition of milk to my baby’s belly! It was an interesting exercise in time management. 1) Add hops. 2) Run to couch and feed kid. 3) Burp kid while running to wort to add more hops. Repeat.
- I have to remember to wait for a good rolling boil…not when I see a few bubbles. Don’t be afraid to get that thing rolling like a stone.
- When you have a new toy to play with that involves a drain, DO NOT FORGET TO PUT IN THE WIRE MESH BAZOOKA TUBE THAT PREVENTS THE DRAIN FROM GETTING CLOGGED! Not only did I get a clogged drain while draining the boiling hot wort, but this was surely going to happen with the addition of all these ginger roots and cinammon sticks in the mix! MAYBE I would have been alright if I had made a regular old batch of beer, but NOOOO, I had to be all adventurous like! The wort was trickling out slower than those old guys who can’t seem to urinate like they used to.
- I had a very small leak from the drain but it seemed to stop after awhile. I’m not sure what to make of this but I’ll look into tightening the connections before my next batch.
- The wort seemed to have scorched at the bottom. I can only imagine this was due to me adding the liquid malt extract and not stirring it enough. Why wasn’t I stirring it enough? See bullet point #1.
- The wort chiller needs a good spot to be rinsed after being in the wort for the 23 minutes it took (not bad actually!). Perhaps I should rinse it in the shower in the bathroom?
All in all, I can’t complain too much about the brew day. I got to test out some new equipment and while the clogged drain could be considered a disaster, it didn’t ruin the beer.
The new setup.
Up next: get that compressor working on the bar fridge, fill those kegs and enjoy some beer while dreaming up the next recipe!