With the help of James and Chris I made my first attempt at brewing beer at home this Saturday. Other than some numbness in my extremities legs and finding out how absurdly long it takes to filter 6 gallons of water through a brita filter, the process was relatively uneventful. The fermenter is bubbling away happily in my upstairs bathtub (the warmest room in the house at 64 degrees) so I believe it will turn into beer, perhaps bad beer, but beer none the less.

Now all I have to do is wait. I am planning on 5-7 days in the primary at 64 degrees, 10-14 days in the secondary at around 59 degrees, and priming with corn sugar prior to bottling. Then after only 2 short weeks of bottle conditioning I can get my first taste of the product.

More pics available in Petrilli’s flickr set.

Recipe and more details after the jump.

Unnamed Belgian Pale Ale (Based on a Recipe by Randy Mosher in Radical Brewing)
Grains and Adjuncts
3.0 lb Breiss Golden Light DME
1.5 lb Breiss Sparkling Amber DME
1.5 lb Dememera Sugar

1.0 Lb Belgian Aromatic Malt
6.0 oz Belgian Caravienne Malt

Hops and Spices
.75 oz Northern Brewer (6.8% AA) 90 min
.90 oz Saaz (3.6% AA) 15 min
.67 oz Saaz (3.6% AA) End of Boil
.50 oz Coriander End of Boil
4 pods Cardamom End of Boil
Zest of 2 Navel Oranges End of Boil

Yeast
WLP 500 Trappist

Ending Volume (after make-up water): 5 Gallons
Measured SG: 1.060 (expected 1.052)
Estimated Bitterness: 28 IBU

Due to limitations on equipment the process was as follows:
-Filtered 6 gallons of water
-Brought that to 152 in the turkey fryer
-Attempted to hold 152 in the 30 degree weather (average was probably closer to 150)
-Gently brought this up to 170 and rinsed with wort (does it even count as a sparge when you don’t use fresh water?)
-Added DME and Dememera
-Boiled per hop schedule
-Chilled to 80 degrees with a immersion chiller
-Filtered through a fine mesh colander into the Primary Fermenter
-A bit of violent stirring
-Pitched the yeast
-Placed the fermenter in the warmest dark area of the house (~64 F)

There was no activity in the air lock after 24 hours so I gave the fermenter a bit of a shake last night at around 28 hours I had one bubble every ten seconds, and now I am seeing constant bubbles so I am hopeful that this is in the process of turning into beer of some sort.

Some Lessons Learned:
-It is damn hard to maintain a constant temperature (other than 212) in a thin walled vessel when the ambient air temperature is around 35 degrees
-Filtering 6 gallons of water through a Brita Filter takes forever
-My digital probe thermometer gets all weird around 150 degrees. In other ranges it will measure to 1 degree (e.g. 141, 142, 143) between 150 and 160 it only does even digits (e.g. 150, 152, 154).
-Brewing takes a lot longer when you do your own cleaning, but then that is half the fun, or at least 1/8 of it.

Picture is property of Chris