Brewing beer

The husband and I got a home brewing kit.  We brewed our first batch on February 20th.  It was President's Day so both of us had the day off and we decided it was the perfect time to try it out.  I wanted to be right there with him the whole time for our first batch.  I did grab a chair a few times during the process.

Let me begin by saying that brewing beer takes a while.  We made a Brown Ale as our first beer.  It needs to ferment in the fermenting tank (full disclosure- its a bucket, not a tank) for about a week, then it needs to be transferred to another tank for a couple more days.  Then we'll be ready to bottle our beer.  After bottling we can drink some of the beer immediately, but for best results we'll have to wait a few more weeks.  It's a good thing we made so much so we can try it at various times during the final aging process.

In the meantime, we had to make our wort.  This required hours of standing in front of the stove, stirring (and then just watching) a big pot.  After that we had to cool the boiling liquid in an ice bath, which took another 2 hours or so.  Then we siphoned our beer into our fermenting tank and put the tank in our closet to ferment in the dark for a while.  Finally we could sit down for good!

Needless to say we went to sleep early last night.  I'm still exhausted an my leg is screaming at me, but it was well worth it.  We had a blast.

When this batch is done we want to try our hand at wine.  From what I've read the whole beginning process is much easier, but there seems to be more tending to throughout the whole process.  I can't wait!