Located in the Sunnyside neighborhood in San Francisco. Close to Bart/Muni/highways and downtown will make our work commutes very easy. There is a decent sized backyard that is fully landscaped. The garage is unfinished, but has enough room for two cars (or one car, two bikes and a brewery), some storage and a laundry area.

(sorry for the duplicate image, wordpress/theme issue)

Our offer was accepted, and now the fun begins. Housewarming coming soon.

I have trying to challenge myself with each batch and refine my methods. I want to move into all-grain brewing, but I really could use some more equipment. After yesterday’s mini-mash experiment, I could see having a few extra containers would help. I also learned that the mash retains heat very well – even outside. The next purchase will be an 8 gal brew pot and wort chiller. The bathtub/sink cooling process is taking too long. With the larger pot, I can do full boil brewing and be able to bring the temp down quickly for pitching the yeast. Regardless, the wife is happy that the kitchen was not destroyed in the process.

Buying a pre-package ingredients kit makes life easier by eliminating some of the guess work. I decided to try mini-mash recipe and was having difficulties in finding a kit that I wanted to try. I found a recipe in The Complete Joy of Homebrewing and headed to More Beer for ingredients. It was fun picking out the grains, grinding and overloading the arms to head to the checkout. I also picked up a couple of ingredients for the next batch, Flanders Red Ale which needs six months of aging. I wanted to make sure that I had some beer ready for the end of March for the wedding party. Little bit sooner than six months away.

The Mini Mash method provides an introduction to all-grain brewing which matches commercial brewing methods and allows the brewer to have complete control over the product. The Mini Mash uses the same principals of mashing, but at a smaller scale. This will provide a better flavor but still allows for some learning room since the malt extract will provide alot of the sugars for fermentation. The extra steps do add some time to the overall process, but it was exciting to see how just barley, hops and water can be made into beer. The only additional piece of equipment that I needed was a lauter tun, basically a vessel to extract the sweet wort from the grains. I was able to improvise by using the 6 gallon plastic bucket that came with the initial beer equipment kit and a large mesh bag from More Beer.

Here is the recipe and basic steps I used.

Name: India Pale Ale: Mini Mash
Final Amount: 5 gals

Ingredients
3.5lbs American Pale
1lb Crystal 75 Malt
.5lb aromatic malt
2tsp gypsum
4lbs plain light Dried Malt Extract (DME)
2oz Centennial Hops (Boiling): 15 HBU (420 MBU)
1oz Amarillo hops (finishing)
1/4tsp Irish moss powder
1 White Labs California Ale yeast (WLP001)
3/4c corn sugar (bottling)

1. Add the crushed malted barley to 5qt of 150ºF water and mix well.
2. Hold temp at 133ºF for 30min.
3. Add 2½qt. of boiling water to the mash.
4. Hold at 149-155ºF for 45min. stirring occasionally.
5. Add more heat to raise the temp to 167ºF.
6. Pour mash into lauter-tun and sparge with 2.5gal of 170ºF water.
• Scoop water out of the pot until 2” cover the grain bed
• Recirculation 3 times.
• Connect 3/8” ID tubing to spigot and collect. 1/3c every 20secs. Should last around 40min.
• Maintain 1-2” of water on top of grain.
• Take hydrometer reading.
7. Bring sweet wort to boil and add malt extract and boiling hops.
8. Boil for 60 min.
9. Add finishing hops and Irish moss at last 5min.
10. Strain, sparge and transfer to fermenter with 2gal of cold water.

On Saturday, I picked up a bottle of Pliny the Elder. Quite good. I am interested in seeing how my turns out. This should be ready in a few more weeks and it will be my first keg beer.

Tonight, I am bottling my holiday porter, which will be ready on Christmas Day. I’ll have a post Christmas beer tasting afternoon with some BBQ action. Let me know if you are interested. I expect to have the porter and Pliny the Elder ready for consumption by then.

Some quick links to the brew kits from MoreBeer.com:

Pliny the Elder:

• Extract Kit
• All Grain

Lawnmower Ale will be ready to drink on 16-November.

After flipping through the Joy of Homebrewing searching for my next recipe, I decided to go with one that was delivered to my inbox, Griz’s Chocolate-Orange Porter. A quick trip to Brewcraft for supplies, and I would be ready to brew. I had to make an additional stop at Whole Foods and the liquor store for a couple of organic oranges for zest and a bottle of Godiva Chocolate Liquor for the chocolate flavor. I am wondering what kind of punch the booze will add to the beer.

This recipe used loads of grains, and I was able to use a new partial mash technique that included lautering and sparging. Lautering is the removal of the loose grains from the wort and sparging is the process of rinsing the spent grains with hot water to extract more sugars from the grain. I found this method an actually easier than the giant tea bag method that I have been using. Another benefit is the loose grains should allow more of the flavors to be extracted while making the wort. It is a good learning experience and a decent primer for the all grain method that I want to try further down the road.

The wort smelled great! The house was filled with a chocolate-oatmeal cookie smell. Compared to the first batch that made the place really smell like a brewery, this was a welcomed change. Ice helped the cooling process along and was able to pitch the yeast at 70-75 degrees. The dark, chocolate colored beer is fermenting away and will be ready December 25th.

Look for the recipe soon.

My process is improving and I am relying less on the ‘how-to’ sheets, though it is always good to have the directions ready for reference. I am having a difficult time trying to cook and sanitize the equipment. I think future batches will start earlier in the morning so I don’t compete for the kitchen. This might not be an issue when I move the process to the garage or backyard. Then I can invest in a couple more buckets for keeping the sanitized equipment clean.

I only have a couple of Batch 001 Ale’s left, and a week to go for the Lawnmower Ale. In the meantime, I have found an excellent bottle of ale from the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. The Estate, Brewers Harvest Ale is a first release of this ale. The Sierra Nevada Brewing Co grew the hops and grains for this beer. It is very good, and I just picked up a second bottle to let age.

While at the beer store on Saturday, I picked up some more ingredients for the next batch. I am using Grizzly’s recipe for Lawnmower Ale. Should be a nice lighter ale and hopefully a substitute for a pilsner which require a little bit more equipment, namely, refrigeration.

I got a late start on the second batch yesterday and slightly modified the process a bit. The change in process meant that it took longer to cool the wort. However, I hydrated the yeast before pitching which meant I was already fermenting by the time I woke up this morning. I miscalculated my trip and beer making, and I should be moving to the secondary fermentation while I am away. Oh well. Slight chance that it will be ready Wednesday night, my last chance before heading out. Lawnmower Ale uses clarification additives and dry malt extracts, which were new to me. Everything that I have been reading states, “use quality ingredients”. I am not sure where dry malt extract falls into that category.

In the future, I might try maintaining my own yeast cultures. The process doesn’t sound too difficult, and it would be cool to culture a favorable yeast. I observed the process a little more closely this time, and the epiphany of the re-hydrating of the yeast was well worth the minor effort and extra time. Lots to learn in the meantime though. For now, I will stick to the partial mash with store-bought yeast cultures.

Since I have started this new hobby, I have connected with some friend’s who are also home brewers. I cannot wait to sample some of their wares. I need to start recording my recipes and notes. Almost seems like that there should be an app for that…

Next steps: Review and document process, figuire out kegging, and find the next recipe. Might have to hit up an old colleague of mine for his recipe.

I moved the primary fermentation bucket onto the table and let settle for an hour or so. Waiting for the beer to settle, I made some coffee and cleaned the carboy, transfer hose and airlock. Learning that home brewing is a lot of cleaning. Once clean and sanitized, I prepared for the transfer. Hose to end of nozzle, other end into carboy. If you are looking at the pictures, the tub around the carboy is a preventative measure. If things go wrong, there is something else to trap the liquid – I had a really bad experience with a 50 gallon fish tank.

So it looks like beer. And it smells like beer. I think I am on the right track here. Over the last week, I learned what the hydrometer is used for – measuring the abv of the beer. How boozy is the beer? I am going to drink it one way are another. IF it is strong, drink less. I’ll worry about abv later. I have also been offered a kegerator from a colleague, who happens to be a home brewer. He has given me loads of tips, and it is helping fuel my interest in this new hobby. The kegerator will also allow me to do Pilseners too.

More waiting while the second fermentation does its thing. To pass the time, I am taking the girlfriend to Hawaii. We get back just in time for bottling. I need to figure out the next recipe too. Pale Ale is going to be tasty, but variety is good.