Happy Brew Day!

[Goodwin 1st MRB]

I like to brew (on an absurdly small scale) - and today I made my jump to all-grain brewing. For those of you who don't know - all grain is a style that gives you complete control over the beer. You pick out the grains that end up becoming the malt, the hops, all of it. You extract the sugars from the grains, you boil the stuff, the whole 9.

I had a lot of fun and the lady was bored with the camera.

So I figured I'd share some pictures.

Here is my mashtun (brand new, finished making it yesterday!)

Mashtun!

The mashtun is where you hold the grains, and pour in the hot water, then it sits for an hour while the hot water 'extracts' all the good flavorful sugars from the grains to make up the 'malt' of the beer.

This is the 'wort' that is extracted from the mashtun and boiled to create the 'beer'

Wort!

Here is the boiling wort!

Boiling hawt!

This is who helped me out today (along with another brewer buddy of mine who has over 30 brews under his belt in the past year):

Worker Beez!

This is my hydrometer reading - this is the Original Gravity. After fermentation I'll take another reading before I bottle and then a calculation of both gravities will tell me the exact ABV of the beer. My goal was 1079, this beer is at 1080 - so it was REALLY close. If things work out like they should - this beer will be around 8% ABV and delicious as hell.

Hydrometer!

And the final product, here is the beer on it's way to being beer - beginning the fermentation process.

In about 1-1.5 weeks I'll probably pop open the cap and dump in almost 2 ounces of hops for 'dry hopping'. This will help give the beer a really hop 'fresh' aroma. Then probably another week or two after that it'll be added to some sugar water, and bottled. It will 'carbonate' in the bottles for about 2-3 weeks, and then be ready for drinking!

Beer, mmmm...

I was attempting a Hop Rod Rye clone. Hop Rod Rye is brewed by Bear Republic, and it's an amazing Rye IPA. I highly recommend.

Anyhow, hope you all want to brew beer now. :-P

In total, the grains/hops to make this cost me around $15-20 and I'll probably get about 2 cases of amazing brew out of this. It's only a 2.5 gallon batch, all my previous batches have been 5 gallons - but since this was all grain, I wanted to 'start small' and see how it worked out.

[Stab N' Grab]

I want to freeze it in the winter and skate on it! then melt it in the spring time and drink it!

[Smithers 1st MRB]

Thats awesome goodwin, Thanks for the pictures. Really interesting.

[J. Clark]

"i wanna put my dick in it"

"i want it to put its dick in me"

i love beerfest

and theres a party at goodwins tonight

[Mamora BAR]

i want some! -whimper-

[Stab N' Grab]

If you have a BevMo in your area, or imported liquor store, you should check out this 'rauch bier' from Germany. They toast the barley to make a really distinct and delicious taste. Its kind of a rare beer, and its about 5 bucks a pint, but its worth every penny. Its called Schlenkerla

[Goodwin 1st MRB]

If you have a BevMo in your area, or imported liquor store, you should check out this 'rauch bier' from Germany. They toast the barley to make a really distinct and delicious taste. Its kind of a rare beer, and its about 5 bucks a pint, but its worth every penny. Its called Schlenkerla

Sweet!

I'll have to hit up the stores around here to see if anyone carries it. Some of the stores around here have surprisingly good selections from around the world - problem is that usually there are only a few bottles of really select stuff and sometimes they're out.

Thanks for the suggestion!

[Parker 1st MRB]

"i wanna put my dick in it"

"i want it to put its dick in me"

i love beerfest

and theres a party at goodwins tonight

Beerfest FTW!

[Gooderham 1st MRB]

I fucking love beer. That looks awesome Goodwin!

I created an account with RateBeer.com that I should be using...