So, it’s been a bit over a week since we really tapped our first batch of homebrew and it’s time to start reviewing what we came up with and how it seems to have worked out. Our first attempt was to be a German light lager and the outcome was basically a German light lager.
I was a bit concerned when we first started that the first batch we brewed would be good for only low end cooking and maybe degreasing engine parts. Turns out I was wrong.
The beer itself was generally the right color (amber in color, around a Bass or a lighter Sam Adams) and with generally the right amount of carbonation. I did find the initial taste tests (2 bottles) to be a bit more flat than I would have preferred, but as the beer aged, it tended to pick up a bit more carbonation and more clarity.
Which brings me to my second gripe: sediment. We don’t yet have the capabilities to filter beer, so whatever we make is unfiltered and therefore a bit cloudy. If fact, our first couple of bottles (before the aging process was further along) tended to taste more like a wheat beer than the lager I was hoping for. As the beer aged (especially aging in the refrigerator), the cloudiness tended to diminish and the carbonation seemed to increase a bit. I had one last night (5 weeks after brewing and a bit over 4 weeks since bottling) and it tasted about what I would have expected.
Lessons Learned:
In chatting with the people at the homebrew store, they first recommended that I do a two-stage fermentation, meaning I take the wort and let it sit for a week in the primary fermentation tank, then transfer it to the secondary tank. During the secondary, most of the sediment should settle out yielding a much more clear beer without the need for complicated filtering mechanisms.
Second, I needed a better racking system. I was originally using a medical-grade plastic tube to do my racking from one vessel to another, however there were two problems with this. First, the tubing wasn’t stiff enough, so we had a hard time trying to keep the siphon going. Second, it was maybe a bit too small, meaning the time to move the beer was a bit too long and required too much patience. In the end, we ended up moving the beer and at the same time, much of the sediment we had wanted to remove.
To solve both of these problems, I picked up a self-siphoning racking cane and better food-grade hose for doing my racking. I’ll have to record how much better this system works than the last.
Things to Consider:
I do still have a few problems to overcome:
- How best to clean and sanitize the gear
- How to reduce the mess when bottling (though the second, bottling specific bucket I have may help)
- Where is the best place to hide and age the beer. We don’t have a large enough fridge to properly age and I’m not willing (yet) to pick up an aging specific refrigerator.
What’s Next?
Our next brew is going to be a holiday ale that I picked up as a kit from the homebrew store. It should be a bit darker than our last with hints of cinnamon and other spices. My hope is to brew within the next two to three days and then have the beer ready for Christmas and New Years. I have to admit that I’m a bit curious as to how this will come out. The risks of a spiced brew like this are less that it’ll fail, but that I’ll end up brewing something no one else will like. Only time will tell, I guess.
