Saturday, June 1, 2013

In Anticipation of Brewday Number Three

Today is shaping up to be an awesome day. I'm going to be moving my second batch of homebrew into bottles, brewing my third batch, and all the while I'll be drinking what's left of my first batch.

I never realized how true it was that homebrew tends to disappear in a way that the commercial stuff doesn't. Before I even had a chance to get my second batch into the fermenter, almost half of my first batch had either been consumed or given to friends. That's a big part of the reason that I'm going to be rushing into my third batch.

Brewing my first batch, my mind was in a million places at once. I was anxiously pacing while trying to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything vital to the process. In the end, despite some minor hiccups (I remembered to take the little plastic rings off of the water jugs I boiled, but forgot to do the same for the liquid malt extract jug and spent a good 10 minutes trying to fish it out of the boiling hot dark brown liquid).

My second batch turned into another exciting brew session. As I was getting ready to brew my Chocolate Stout from Midwest Supplies, I discovered that Midwest Supplies doesn't have a Chocolate Stout kit, but that I had instead purchased a kit for Oatmeal Stout. My girlfriend was crushed, as she has tended to like Chocolate Stout a lot more than Oatmeal.

I consulted the internet about adding chocolate to beer, and decided that Cocoa Powder would be an adequate solution to the problem. With no description of how much beer they had been brewing, we had no idea if we were doubling the recommended amount of Cocoa Powder with 8 ounces, but it smelled more like beer than chocolate pudding, so I think we made the right call. Regardless, the spontaneous decision to throw the powder in made batch #2 another incredibly exciting one.

Batch 3 is going to be a special brew for me for a completely unrelated reason. but I'll explain that one after I get a good night's rest.

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