The two weeks that my beer was in fermentation dragged on forever it seemed. I was spending my free time re-reading "The Joy of Home Brewing", and browsing through internet forums dedicated to the hobby. I was starting to gather more information on hop varieties, yeasts, and grains than I ever knew existed. I shopped for carboys, brew kettles, outdoor propane brew heaters (very practical in an apartment complex), hydrometers, and anything I could think of that I'd need. Meanwhile, I had yet to even bottle my first batch of Mr. Beer...
I planned on bottling on a Sunday, but on Friday night, curiosity got the best of me, and I drew a small amount of beer from the tap on my fermenter. It smelled, and tasted like flat beer, which was good, because that was what I was holding. Since I didn't notice any off flavors in my beer, I decided that Saturday would be the new bottle date.
A fresh round of sanitation began in the morning, and again, before I knew it, I now had eight 1 liter bottles of my first pale ale. I stored them in a closet that I had cleaned out, and dedicated to beer storage, and closed the door. Now phase two of waiting had begun.
I promised myself that I was going to take this hobby slowly, and develop at a manageable pace. I hadn't even had a cold glass of my beer yet, there was no way that I was going to rush out and get a more advanced setup. I vowed to brew at least one or two more batches of Mr. Beer before graduating into the next world of homebrewing... Right... Let's see if that works out.
No comments:
Post a Comment