Home Brew and Kegging

First off, let me apologize for completely slacking the last month on my posts, I've been pretty busy and just haven't had the time. But I haven't forgotten about my faithful followers, and because I love all [3 or 4] of you, you all will now be receiving a prize!! Let the fun begin!

Back in January I made my first batch of home brew beer. It came out pretty good, but there were a few small hiccups along the way that prevented the beer from fulfilling it's full potential. The first being that the stove in our house is electric. Now normally this wouldn't be a problem, except that an electric stove has an extremely difficult time keeping 2.5 to 3 gallons [GALLONS?!] at a rolling boil for any extended amount of time. Because of this, our boiling wort would be on the stove for up to 120 minutes, and only be hot, instead of a nice boil like it should be. Well the times have changed my friends. No more will I be confined to the super fancy looking, black stealth, electric burners hidden inside our stove top! No longer will the tyranny of electric current conduct [haha, get it?] how hot my boils will be!! No sir, I've moved on to one of man's most basic and primitive tools. Fire! Well, fire in the sense that it comes from an outdoor propane burner originally used to deep fry a turkey, but it serves the same purpose!

By boiling the wort with an open and propane controlled flame, I can now get the wort up to the proper temperature much, much faster, and boil it for the 60 minutes it really needs, instead of 120 minutes at a 'hot' temperature. 

The other reason why I'm very excited about our this brew is because it's going to be kegged. Yes, you read correctly, we're moving on to kegging our own beer! No more cleaning and sanitizing 30 to 35 bottles, then tediously filling and capping each one! No more I say! Now, I'll only have clean and sanitize one container [the keg] and seal it off just once. Furthermore, by kegging the beer, I'll be able to control the carbonation levels much better since I'll be force carbonating it with a CO2 tank. When you bottle beer you have to mix the fermented wort with a sugar solution, then bottle them. The sugar goes to work with the alcohol in the sealed bottle to create the carbonation from within, but it doesn't work that great all the time. Lastly, instead of having to wait the 2 to 3 weeks to enjoy the beer after bottling it, you will be able to enjoy the first glass of beer 24 hours after transferring it into the keg. Force carbonating takes much less time, and you can also control how it pours out of the tap by adjusting the CO2 pressure. 

So in conclusion; Lots of changes, and all for the better. This is why I'm so excited for the upcoming batch, an Autumn Ale by the way, and you should be too. Why you ask? Because that's your prize, a free beer or 3 that you'll be able to pour yourself from what will be our new home beer dispersing system. [More on that later as well.] The code word for your free beers will be: "Hoochie Mama" [Bonus beer points if you can tell me where that comes from.]

Here's a couple pictures to feed your curiosity. Enjoy!

Adding 1oz of hops to the brew last week

The wort during its 60 minute rolling boil

Some of the recently ordered equipment for kegging the beer