Now, I play the waiting game...

[terpkristin]

Last week, in the Drunk Guy thread I posted how I wasn't drunk, but had just finished brewing up my first batch of beer. One week later, I'm doing the bottling (and making a ginormous mess).

I guess there are two steps of my waiting. The first is that I've bottled 30 bottles of beer so far, and have another 20 bottles in the dishwasher on the high heat cycle. So my first bit of waiting is waiting for the dishwasher to be done with them so I can bottle the rest of the beer.

The second step is of course waiting for the beer to be ready. It's already been one week, and after I finish bottling, it's about another 3 before I can drink any of it.

I'm so excited and nervous all at once to see how this beer turns out. I am brewing in the True Brew Maestro kit (link (http://www.flyingbarrel.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=20)) and am brewing the True Brew Red Ale (link (http://www.flyingbarrel.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=19), link2 (http://www.crosby-baker.com/TrueBrew.htm#True%20Brew%20Beer%20Ingredient%20Kits)). I'm a little unnerved, when I took the specific gravity reading, it was supposed to be around 1.012-1.014, but mine was closer to 1.02, so that's one potential weirdness factor. Also, when I was brewing last week, I wasn't sure what level of "foaming" and such I was looking for, so may have overcooked the hops by adding them slightly prematurely, I guess time will tell on that. I will say, when I took the lid off of my fermentation bucket, the smell was glorious, so I guess that's a good sign. :D

Anyway, I'm trying to kill time so I posted this, hopefully in 3 weeks I'll have some good beer to follow it up with. ;)

/tk

[cartman]

That's the toughest time, between the bottling and the drinking... :D

[Raiders Army]

Wow good luck with that! I've never been patient enough to do this...just gone to the store and bought some beer.

[JeeberD]

Why aren't you at the NMSU game, RA? For shame!

[JeeberD]

Dola-

I've always wanted to brew my own beer, but never had the time or patience to do it...

[clintl]

Good luck with the brewing, tk! I used to brew from time to time, and made a few very good beers. But it does make a mess.

[terpkristin]

Well I got 43 bottles out of it. Some stayed in the fermentation bucket, due to the sediment and the siphon not being....well, great.

Some stayed in the bottling bucket, owing to how hard it was to get the last little bit out, trying to tilt the bucket so the spigot got filled, and manage the bottle and the bottle filler....

Some landed on the floor due to imperfection in my skill working with stuff. Either way, 43 bottles is a good haul. 43 and a half, really, I'm giving the half a bottle a try to see how it tastes (quite good, actually!). I know it's still got some resting and conditioning to do, but if the unconditioned beer is any indication, this is a good brew.

Cleaning would be so much easier if I had an outdoor hose to do the preliminary rinse, but oh well, it wasn't too too bad. Had to clean up my floor, too, due to the amount of beer spilled on the floor.

Hooray, beer!

/tk

[21C]

Anything to report yet?

After reading this thread, I went out and bought a can of home brew Dark Ale (http://www.coopers.com.au/homebrew/hbrew.php?pid=1&id=112) since I had the kit from a few years ago. My 12 year old daughter helped me with the brewing and the bottling and I've just opened my first bottle - I only had to wait about 10 days after bottling. Not a bad effort.

Actually I think my daughter pushed me to get it since she bought me a Simpsons bottle opener for Father's Day.

[terpkristin]

Well, the bad news is that the beer didn't turn out "right." The good news is that it's still eminantly drinkable. :D

My beer ended up a bit short on carbonation and a bit sweet. I'm not exactly sure how, but I think I may have killed some of the yeast when I put it in. Maybe the wort was too hot when I added the yeast, that's the only thing I can really think of. The beer ended up fermenting for the appropriate amount of time, but, after a week, when I added the priming sugar and did the bottling, I guess some of the yeast was dead so didn't "revive" for carbonation with the sugar. The beer also ended up a bit higher in alcohol content than anticipated, but I'm ok with that. :D :D :D

In the end, it's still a good drink, next beer I make I guess I'll just have to get a higher-fidelity thermometer. But first I have quite a few bottles to go through...

/tk

[RPI-Fan]

Shouldn't you make it now so you won't have to go through the waiting game anymore???

[terpkristin]

Shouldn't you make it now so you won't have to go through the waiting game anymore???

Maybe so. I made 43 bottles and I haven't been drinking much lately at all, so I think if I make it in the forseeable future, I will still have this Red Ale to tide me over.

/tk