Making a one gallon batch of beer..... enough said.

Hey All, 

Thanks for hanging in there while I took a bit of a break... I had about a week where I was just in a funk trying to find my new normal with not having my DiDi kitty around.... These pictures are from a few weeks back, but it was fun.... so I thought I'd share.....

Beer.  Making Beer.  Now, I have to admit that I'm not a huge beer fan.... but I love the process of making it.... so what did I do when I had some extra time on my hands?  Of course, make beer. 

Here goes.....

Here's a picture of everything I needed to brew.  It includes 1 1/2 - 2 gallons of water, 1 lb of Dry Malt Extract, about 5 oz of steeping grains, hops and 1/4 tsp Irish moss.  I'm waiting for the water to come to a temp at this point.... about 165 degrees Fahrenheit.  Once I was able to get to that temp, I moved the pot to the sink and placed the bag on the plate in the pot and put on the lid.  Those are the steeping grains.  I steeped them for 30 minutes.  Once that was done I took out the bag ( let it drip, but DO NOT squeeze!)  Now it's boil time.  Wait, Wait WAIT for the water to come to a nice rolling boil....  

I think I should mention that brewer's are a lot like gardeners.... ask 10 the same question and you will get 10 different answers.... so, in other words, if you're a brewer and don't like my style... don't hate! 

Once I had a boil going, I added in my first hop (for bittering) and half of my dry malt extract.  It's best to do this off the heat so it doesn't scorch.  Set a timer for 60 minutes... yep, I let this bad boy boil for 60 minutes... At 30 minutes left of my boil I added in the rest of the dry malt extract. 

While I was waiting for the boil to finish, I started sanitizing my fermenter, airlock and anything that will come in contact with the wort once it is finished boiling.  Bacteria/yuckiness is the devil after you have boiled.... and is prime time for infection.  I used Star San to sanitize.  It's a no rinse sanitizer and is easy to use. 

At 10 minutes before the end of the boil I added the Irish moss.  It helps the beer clarify.  I also added a touch more hops at the end of the boil for aroma.  Now it's time to get that thing cooled down as quickly as possible. I guess that I should mention that now that "thing" has a proper name of "wort" now that it has been boiled.  It doesn't become beer until after it is fermented.  I wanted to get it down to around 70 degrees.  I used a cold water bath.  For bigger batches someone could use an ice bath or a wort chiller. 

Once you have it cooled down, it's time to aerate.  Using my sanitized paddle I stirred and swooshed that thing until it had a nice foamy froth going.  I poured my yeast on top and capped it using an airlock. CO2 comes out, but no bad buggers getting in.  Done!  Uh-oh!  I forgot to mention that I took a hydrometer reading to see where it is sitting.  It was good at 1.060.... its going to be a stronger beer...

Now I wait about 7 days for it to finish fermenting.... so fun to watch! 

Until Next Time Friends!