I'm a big fan of beer and craftbrews, so I've wanted to try my hand at homebrewing for some time. While I was in Cork, I decided that I was going to act on it when I got back to the States. While there, though, I was pointed to a brewpub just north of the river called the Franciscan Well. They had a few pretty solid craftbeers of their own manufacture on draft at any time. And one day, they had a few homebrewers (and homebrew supply companies) come in to hand out samples of their beer and answer questions. I stopped in, tried some homebrewed IPA and Irish red and asked a bunch of questions. The most important thing I took away was the name of John Palmer's How To Brew and the URL for the complete online version of the first edition. So far, I really like this book. It manages to strike a balance between giving simple instructions and talking about the reasons and the science behind what it's telling you to do.
We have a homebrew store here in Missoula, so I headed out there not long after I got back. I picked up their basic kit: 6.5gal food-safe plastic bucket, 5gal glass carboy, airlock, rubber stopper, tubing, bottle capper and auto-siphon. The auto-siphon is pretty handy, as it allows getting the siphoning started without a lot of effort and risk of contamination. Based on what How To Brew said, I decided to go with Star-San, a no-rinse acidic sanitizer. I figured that for my first time brewing, a kit would be easiest, so I also picked up a kit for an English brown ale with a mix of malt extract and specialty grains. Finally, I picked up a strainer, a 1qt measuring cup, and a giant spoon at a restaurant supply place and a 21qt enamelled canning pot at a local hardware store.
Following the instructions in the book and from the kit wasn't too difficult. It was certainly a fair bit of work, however. Boiling five gallons of water takes a fair bit of time, and then it has to stay boiling for an hour. It was a hot Montana summer day too, standing over a hot stove. When all was said and done, though, I poured it into the bucket, pitched the yeast and stuck it in my hall closet.
During fermentation, things went pretty much as the book said they would. How To Brew recommends two weeks in the bucket for primary fermentation and another two weeks in the bottles for conditioning. Additionally, the yeast I used (English ale yeast) recommends a top temperature of 70°F with an absolute maximum of 75°. Temperature control was difficult in the heat of summer, but our house stayed relatively cool and the closet helped. I also got pretty busy and distracted as the summer wore on, however, and forgot to rack the beer to bottles until it'd been in the bucket for about four weeks.
In the end, all seems to have turned out well. I ended up with 42 bottles of delicious brown ale. One unexpected result is a slight but noticeable banana flavor to the beer. From what I've read, this seems to be a result of the higher temperatures: at around 70°, yeast begin to create amyl acetate esters, molecules which impart a slight fruity flavor. Even though I'm not a big fan of banana, though, the result isn't unpleasant at all. And with five gallons, I won't run out of beer quickly. Next up, I'm looking into finding a recipe for a dunkelweiß, a dark wheat beer with some truly excellent examples out there (Franziskaner and Weihenstephaner, both from Germany, are among my favorites).
