Second Brew Day

I had my second brew day today. It went pretty smoothly, which may or may not have been because I refrained from imbibing heavily during the process. In all seriousness, having the right equipment really expedited things. I went and got a hydrometer jar and auto-siphon from MyLHBS, and it was nice to be able to take an actual gravity reading today. I'm sure being able to use the auto-siphon a few days from now to rack today's beer into the bottling bucket will be helpful too.

I guess I should get tasting notes for the first batch, which I'm calling the Bitter Brown, up soon. I have to say I'm very happy with it. Yes I was going for a hoppy red, and instead I got a bitter brown, but it's definitely drinkable. Everyone who has tried it so far has liked it, which is encouraging for a first batch. I've got some things I'd like to correct with it, but that will come in time. I'm going to be giving bottles to coworkers and that kind of thing to see what they think. I want to hear from craft beer folks about it, but I also want to hear from people who drink more mainstream beer, or who don't drink beer often at all. It can only make future batches stronger.

Today's recipe can be found here. This was a kitchen sink batch because it was only 2 gallons and it had ingredients from the Mr. Beer kit that my sister got me last Christmas. It isn't really 2 pounds of amber extract in the recipe, it's really a can of this, and the corn syrup is this. Eh, I know Mr. Beer isn't refined homebrew, but I wasn't going to toss the ingredients. I got some Hallertau and honey malt to add to it. I'm hoping it'll be alright. I really would like it to be more balanced than the Bitter Brown. I missed my OG on it by quite a bit (Hopville said 1.056 to 1.066 and I had 1.052). Not sure exactly why, but it could be because the Booster isn't corn syrup, it's corn syrup solids. Whatever, I'm sure it'll be fine.

Before I sign off tonight, I want to take a moment to talk about something completely different. In the last entry, I neglected to thank my girlfriend for her help with figuring out the siphoning. She was the one who looked up the diagrams and the explanations for us and kept me calm while I was certain that my batch was going to be DOA. In general though, I think it's rare that most craft beer enthusiasts significant others are crazy about beer in the same way they are. What I don't think it's rare is the support, encouragement, and downright tolerance through discussions of different kinds of malt, new releases of beer, etc. that said significant others offer. My girlfriend goes above and beyond the duty with my obses--- hobby, and I'm very grateful for it, even when I forget to mention it in my blog entries. My suggestion for myself and everyone else is to show that gratitude more often, it means a lot to get that support, and it's not always easy (I imagine) to give it.

I'll get tasting notes on the Bitter Brown up this week.

Until next time, happy homebrewing.