Edible Chicago

Nut Brown Ale day 1, marriage day 15

So i turned 30 a while back, and dan-my-main-man (well, my only man) got me a home brew starter kit, and the ingredients for a batch of Nut Brown ale, my favorite type of beer. Coincidentally, it's also a good starter batch since it only takes a few weeks (4-6) and is more forgiving of mistakes since the flavor is so strong....anyhow, since we were going away on the honeymoon to Big Sur, CA, i had to wait until now to get the beer going. Here is a cute shot of us at Nepenthe, a really cool restaurant in Big Sur. Check out their web page for a live web cam of Big Sur weather!


The view was great and the food was good. The service was great too! Back to the beer though...it turns out, a lot of the work to get the first fermentation going involves just watching the wort boil (the wort is what brewers call unfermented beer. ha! now i'm a brewer too!) for an hour or so.
Once everything is good and cooked together, i cooled the wort, poured it into a sterilized plastic bucket, threw in some yeast, and sealed it up to wait. This first step should take two weeks or so, during which the yeast will eat up all the sugar and poop out delicious booze. However, i should know within 48 hours if it's going well, since that's when the yeast should really get going and a nice foam will cover the wort.
So it doesn't look like much, just a plastic bucket in the corner of our dining room. But i'm sure it's going to be an awesome batch! more details to follow.

posted by Christa @ 10:28 PM