As you may know I recently upgraded my Mr. Beer 2 gallon brewing system to a much bigger 5 gallon Austin Home Brew 2 Stage System. For my first attempt at using this new system I decided to brew a Bavarian Hefeweizen recipe that was given to my by the Austin Homebrew Supply. They said that this is a good recipe for people who are new to brewing beer. Also, pretty much everybody I know likes a good Hefeweizen. This was no doubt as much of a learning experience for me as it was to be an attempt at making good beer. Several things to remember for next time:
1. Yeast is only suppose to be out less than 24 hours before brewing, not 24-48 hours like I thought
2. There are plenty of opportunities for your beer to be contaminated between the final boil and putting the lid on the fermentation bucket.
3. You take the hydrometer reading before you pitch the yeast, not after as I tried to do.
4. You may need a hammer to get that fermenter lid on nice and snug.
Despite the various mistakes I made I still think my beer has a chance to be pretty decent. Enjoy the pictures from First brew Day 2.0
Sanitizing everything that will come into contact with the beer after the boil.
Just steeping the grains in the pot.
Did I mention that the pot is REALLY HUGE?!?!? I didn’t think my poor electric stove, would be able to heat up this 30 quart behemoth.
Adding 7 pounds of malt extract to make the wort. I know it looks like I did it all by myself, I had help.
Adding the rest of the hops. By this time the wort has been boiling for about an hour and I had already added half of the hops at the beginning of the boil.
Giving the wort an Ice Bath (a.k.a the poor man’s wort chiller) to cool the wort so I can pitch the yeast.
Taking the wort’s temperature so I can pitch the yeast.
In goes the yeast to make this wort into beer.
After the lid is on tight and the airlock is in place, you set it and forget it. When I mean forget it , I mean for only a week. At which I will be transferring the brew to the secondary fermenter, which is also my next post!!!
