Learn how to make beer

“First, why are there no pics of the brewing process? Well, mostly because after turning on the stove and snapping that first pic, it was traumatic. I didn’t realize I was getting into an all-grain batch (Doug, my assisting homebrew expert noticed immediately). If you’re unfamiliar, is exponentially more time-consuming and tricky than extract brewing. In extract, you start the process with the extracted malt sugars in hand. In all grain, you start with a bag of grain and have to extraxt your own malts. Even Doug was intimidated by an all-grain — it’s a bitch. Tons of boiling, circulating and waiting. It’s like making oatmeal for a small army. I also made some first-time blunders, like forgetting to use the strainer in my fancy pot, so I had to deal with a lot of sediment as I transferred to the carboy — probably the messiest part of the whole ordeal.”

“Monitoring fermentation was a unique experience. My thoughts ranged from thinking, “I must have done something wrong, the temperature in my house must be too hot for this,” to seeing activity and thinking, “something is happening,” and eventually to relishing in the glory of the life and transformation that I was witnessing before my eyes. After several hydrometer readings I determined that my beer was done after measuring the same specific gravity three days in a row. I took a sip, and it tasted like, well, warm uncarbonated beer, but it was warm uncarbonated beer that I made, and soon it would be carbonated and refrigerated and in its final form.”

“After my first brew day, I know that anyone can brew their own beer at home, even in a compact space. Of course it felt a little intimidating at first, but my initial worry began to fade with each completed step in the process as I realized, “Wow, I’m really brewing my own beer.” [...] The grain's aroma quickly filled my kitchen and it smelled delicious. [...] Brew day, I learned, is as much about cleaning and sanitizing as it is anything else.”