So breaking beer.
A little over a year ago my friend Cher’s boyfriend expressed an interest in home brewing. Cher, being the kickass girlfriend that she is, bought him all of the supplies for Christmas and painstakingly helped him make his first batch. Then he dumped her. Yey? Brewing started as a “take back” sort of thing, where Cher and I would get together and stumble through a batch using our handy Brooklyn Brew Shop kits and Google.
We experienced a few failures, like my famous Ejaculating IPA:
(lesson: always measure your priming sugar, be careful of sedimentation, and most importantly always open your first bottle in the sink), but overall, it was fun and we ended up with some tasty beer (all of the credit goes to Brooklyn Brew Shop). We originally bought ready made kits complete with a bag of mash, pre-measured hops, and dried yeast. Eventually we grew-up and bought a recipe book and some milled grains for a bit more brewer street cred.
So that’s the story so far: we brewed an organic pumpkin dubbel, experimented with homemade (sorta failed) Belgian candi sugar, wet hopped an IPA for Cher’s 30th birthday drunk camping experience, steeped some apples in a brown ale, and attempted a Belgian tripel that tasted more like nail polish remover. At this point I’ve found a local shop for unmilled grains, bought a grain mill, and started writing my own (probably completely wrong) recipes!
Yes, that’s an old lab notebook, because I’m cool like that and the environment or something.
I still totally have no idea what I’m doing. What’s secondary fermentation? Who has room for a keg? I can just make this shit in my bathroom right? Anyone who knows anything about brewing will probably cringe reading my fumbly notes and basic instructions. I’m not a purist about anything. All batches are 1 gallon because I’m not strong enough to lift heavy things (don’t ask me, I’m just a girl). I ferment everything in glass carboys with a 3 piece airlock and then bottle at around 2 weeks. Hydrometer readings happen at initial fermentation and before bottling. I work full time, run, and have a bad memory so timelines might not always be ideal, but the beer will get bottled and someone will drink it (because up until now that bathroom part has been a secret…ssshhhhhhhh…).
As far as this blog goes, I plan on writing 2-3 posts for every new brew, one on brew day, possibly one for bottling, and definitely one for tasting. Other than that, I will post a review on any cool new piece of equipment, any really interesting beers I come across, or any beer related events.
And why the name breaking beer? I have a degree in chemical engineering and I used to work in a lab. I’ve been asked a few times if I know how to make meth, molly etc. So it’s partially a take on the show, but also the fact that I’m going to screw up about as often as I’m going to succeed. This is a learning process for me and I’m recording it all here.
I’m not expecting anyone to really read this (except for you Brian, because we’re married and its in your contract), but if anyone happens to stumble on it feel free to enlighten me on ways I can improve. Hope you enjoy!