ben.parmeter

I’m slowly checking off those items on my to-do list.  Last night I seized a chunk of “free” time (so rare these days) to setup my garage brewing operation and take a crack at my first real organic brew.  As described before, all ingredients of this Robust Porter recipe are Organically grown (Hops, Grains, Malt, etc.) with exception to the Irish Moss which is in such a tiny amount that it barely matters.

Since the beer is organic, it will contain magical healing properties that will cure all of my many ailments.  I will set about drinking several pints of the healthy elixir every day, lest my body be ravaged by the pesticides and toxins in my other foods.  This effervesant tonic will flush the bad chemicals from my body, stop the aging process, and make my teeth whiter.  Yes.  It’s the Dr. Brommers of beer.  18-in-1.  Glorius.

I introduced a couple of new pieces of technology to my brewing process.  Firstly, I am now using the “Turkey Fryer” kit which comes with an aluminum brew pot, nice long thermometer, and a propane burner with stand.  This is truly a learning process, as I learned very quickly that it needs to be watched very closely to manage the boil.  I was the victim of two (2) boil-overs.  Ugh.  My second, and more exciting piece of new brewing technology is the Wort Chiller.  That’s that big coil of copper that you can see in the pictures below.  At the end of the boil, you place this into the brewpot.  After connecting a hose, you can then run cool water throughout the boiling wort, which rapidly breaks the boil and brings the beer down to a nice cool 75 degrees.  I was impressed with the speed at which it cooled the beer from 212 degrees down to 75 in about 10-15 minutes.  My previous ice bath method took over an hour before!  I also used a liquid yeast this time, which is new to me, so I’m hoping that everything ferments OK.  I was walking around the house with a vial of yeast in my pocket just to get it nice and warm prior to pitching.  I’ll let you know if it works.

In two-three weeks I should have delicious organic beer on tap at the house.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 9:04 am and is filed under beer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.