Brew 1, Day 1: American Wheat Beer

Finally got this thing started... took long enough (which is no one's fault but my own), but I'm up and running! We did the actual brewing today, so in about a month, I should have a delicious batch of American wheat beer!

First up, the background:

The Equipment

The girl bought me a full 2-stage equipment kit for my birthday. There are a ton of different types of kits with all different kinds of equipment, but as far as I can tell, this is a really good middle-of-the-road kit; it's got everything you need to do a two-stage fermentation, which you don't need for all brews, but as I've read it does make every brew better. The only thing it didn't come with is bottles and crowns, but I've got about two weeks to get off my butt and pick those up!

That kit combined with a nice big stock pot from the girl's parents got me on my way. I ran into a bunch of delays, mostly based around timing or an overflowing sink in my kitchen, but today the stars aligned, and we got brewing!

The Ingredients

The stuff that beers are made of...

I wanted to keep it nice and simple until I got the hang of the process, so for my first (and probably my second... and maybe my third) batches, I went with a malt extract ingredient kit. These are available at any home brew shop, and on dozens of brewing supply shops online. On a recommendation from the girl's uncle, I went with a kit from Northern Brewer, specifically the American Wheat Beer. It looked pretty straightforward, not complicated, and it's a type I do so thoroughly enjoy! It comes with:

• 6 pounds of wheat malt extract
• 1 oz. Willamette hops pellets
• 1 oz Cascade hops pellets
• 1 packet of Safale US-05 dry yeast

... meaning, of course, everything you need but water. Let's do it!

The Boil

The stockpot I'm using is huge, and dwarfs my stove top. I was a little worried about stability, but it didn't seem to be an issue. 2 1/2 gallons of water in, and set to boil. It took the better part of half an hour, just cause it's so big. Then, in went the extract...

Mmm... gooey...

The brew post-extract

After that, it took another 10 minutes to get back up to a boil, at which point the Willamette hops went in. Another 45 minutes, and in went the Cascade hops.

Wort boiling away, doing it's hoppy thing

15 minutes later, it was smelling hoppy and ready to cool. I don't have an immersion chiller or anything like that, so I went the low-tech route: cold water. I had a little ice which I threw into the first cold bath, but it didn't last long. We probably changed out the water eight or ten times over the course of an hour to get it to a proper, cool temperature.

Ahh, a nice cold bath...

Once the wort was cooled, another 3 gallons of water into the extremely sanitary bucket. We poured the wort on top of that, and topped it off to an even five gallons.

Foamy... sorta like beer?

Then, the first real confirming test of the batch: the original gravity. The ingredient kit stated that it should have a specific gravity of 1.040... and we nailed it, dead on! That was comforting, because it's the first real test you have to tell you if you really messed something up. So far, so good, it seems...

A good hydrometer reading means a happy homebrewer!

After the good hydrometer reading, we pitched the yeast. Nothing too complicated here. Just a nice packet of yeast sprinkled on top. I didn't do anything too involved like rehydration, so the packet went straight into the wort.

The secret ingredient! ... it's yeast...

After that, we attached the lid and the airlock, sealed it up, and now... it's back to the waiting game...

All the crap left in the bottom of the brewpot... gross, but with a purpose!

Next up, I'm looking for some bubbles in the airlock within the next couple days, which means that we're fermenting! And then in a week, we move it all over to a glass carboy for stage 2!