Yesterday was a great day. I had an awesome day at work, got to go hang out with a couple of cute kids, and noticed a home brew shop was right on the way home. In light of this, I figured it would be as good a day as any to do my first extract brew! I stopped by the home brew shop and put together an ESB from the top of my brain, using only a calculator, my knowledge of malts and hops and a piece of paper. When I got home though, I did end up swiping BierMuncher of Homebrewtalk.com's hop schedule from his Red Hook Clone (but I did use different hops). Anyway, here is what I came up with:

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
4 lbs 3.2 oz	Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)	Extract	86.60 %
8.0 oz	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM)	Grain	10.31 %
2.4 oz	Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)	Grain	3.09 %
0.31 oz	Fuggles [6.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	9.6 IBU
0.31 oz	Goldings, East Kent [5.70 %] (30 min)	Hops	7.8 IBU
0.31 oz	Fuggles [6.00 %] (20 min)	Hops	6.4 IBU
0.31 oz	Goldings, East Kent [5.70 %] (5 min)	Hops	2.0 IBU

Beer Profile  

Today I kegged my cinnamon stout. The brewing itself was a nightmare that I believe was sent upon me by the devil himself. I could feel a legion of his minions laughing crazily at my misfortune as I:

Looking to learn how to bottle beer? Well do I have good news for you... I know how and have nothing better to do then sit here and write about it!

Last night I bottled my hefeweizen and oatmeal stout, and took a bunch of pictures in the process. Its a fairly simple procedure, but can be messy, especially if you try doing it yourself. Its also important to remember that after your beer is done fermenting, you want to expose it to oxygen as little as possible. Oxygenating beer after it has fermented can lead to off flavors (AKA shitty tasting beer), so you want to make sure everything is in order before you crack open your jug.

So the first things first! Here is a list of stuff you will need to bottle.

Here is my step by step guide to how I brew. There’s a bunch of pics and stuff for you guys to look at, and additional tidbits of information that I have learned in all the research I have done over the last month and a half. I hope its helpful! First and foremost, you have to learn to...

My Hefeweizen and Blackberry Red Ale (brooklynbrewshop.com)

       Here's a list of all the crap you need to brew all grain batches of BEER! A lot of people say you should start with extract brewing. Extract brewing basically takes out the first and most difficult part of the brewing process... this step, called mashing, is really where you will learn the most about how beer works, is the most creative, and in my opinion, is the most fun.

So I just said screw it and jumped into all grain, and I think you guys should too. The first two batches I made are OK and the four I brewed after that are freaking awesome!