Priscilla, Kyle & I have been enjoying local craft beer recently. There are several local breweries (Free Will, Round Guys, Prism) and many pubs are now serving craft beer along with the mass market beer. It's no surprise then that I received a home brew kit for Christmas this year. Kyle & I brewed our first batch today. He likes to call it Frozen Water Brewing.
Here are a few prep notes:
- First batch brewed from a malt extract kit - Munton's Old English Bitters
- True Brew equipment kit and malt extract were purchased from Keystone Homebrew
- We talked to the guys at Free Will (cache) last night and both of them reminded us to sanitize early & often.
Brew notes:
- We used an old aluminum pot for brewing - seemed to work well.
- Warm the extract early so it pours easily
- When first boil happens, be ready for the over-boil. It happens fast. Pull the pot off the heat quickly
- Sanitize, sanitizes, sanitize
- The bottle filler tube from the True Brew kit works well to pull a sample out through the airlock hole. Sanitize tube before dipping
- First spec gravity test, 4 hours after starting fermentation read 1.045 - right on target
- Fermentation should be done when SG reaches 1.009 - 1.003
We celebrated by running back to Keystone for bottles in the snowstorm then stopping by Prism Brewing in North Wales to try their beer.
Now we wait.