Homebrew Batch

This past Saturday I brewed up two big beers: a double IPA and an imperial stout. These two guys are fermenting furiously as I type, but I'd like to share a bit about how the brewing was done.

First off: I'm still a pretty new brewer. These are batches 18 & 19. I've had success with previous brews, especially with the pumpkin ale, chocolate stout, barleywine and Celebration clone, but if you know your shtuff and would like to give me some tips, please do. If you would like to try a homebrew batch, please read How to Brew. It's a free, on-line step-by-step guide. I follow it for the most part. This the recipe executed below: The Captain IIPA.

Right. So I live in Sydney CBD and have an electric range. This stinks for cooking and brewing, but I also have a butane gas grill! This saved me hours of waiting. Once the water reached just about 75C I added the grain bag. The grain bag is pantyhose with specialty grain in it. Tasty. Dana did not get her pantyhose back, but I got a lot of good colour and flavour thanks to it. And perhaps I got some fermentables. I steeped/partially mashed the grains for 1/2 hour. In the last photo you can see the 4 kilos of extract that will be added to the boil.


Once the steeping was complete, I brought the pot to a boil and added the hops. Hops are the natural preservative in beer, but they also add flavour, aroma, and bitterness to the brew. I used cascade and amarillo hops for the IIPA. Once the pot was boiling, topped-up with more water to get as much hop utilisation as possible, I added the first round of hops and the extract. It takes a bit for the boil to get going after that, but once it is going, the hops are added over time until the boil is complete. Note the difference in the top of the pot before and after the hot break. Right around the hot break is when you can really destroy your stove with a boil-over. Kids, if you try this at home, be careful.


After the boil was complete, some more hops were added for aroma and the batch was cooled. In my case, it was cooled in the bathtub. Finally the good stuff goes went a carboy, the yeast was tossed in, and the vessel was sealed. You can see the airlock below. It has a little bit of water in it to allow pressure to be released while keeping the nasties out. This is where the magic happens. The yeast, in this case the strain is White Labs California Ale V, goes to town on the fermentables (sugars), turning them into alcohol while releasing gas. A hydrometer is used before and after the fermentation, measuring the gravity of the liquid. Before the yeast tuck into their buffet, the liquid is dense with sugars, so the gravity reading is high. The IIPA had an OG of 1.090. After fermentation the sugars are gone and the reading (final gravity) should be somewhere between 1.010 and 1.020. Measuring the difference is how I will know the alcohol content.


"Denis, what did you do with the grain bag?" Good question! I used it to fertilise the garden on our balcony!


I'll report back when it's bottling time...