Alright, that may be a little crude. Last week I went to my first brew day. Now, I have enjoyed good beer for a long time, and I’ve had a rough idea on the processes. I had just never actually had a hand in making the deliciousness that I enjoy so much. My buddy Scott over at Burton Brewhouse (http://burtonbrewhouse.blogspot.com/) has been trying to get me over there for awhile now and due to conflicting schedules it just hadn’t happened. I digress. The plan was to make a pair of beers if we had sufficient time, first up was an Amber brewed with Amarillo hops.

At this stage the beer is beginning to look a lot more like beer. Very sweet taste though, and not a lot of body.We would fix that though.

This part was the easy part. Just sitting back, drinking some brews while making new. You know, because you have to replenish what you consume.

When I construct my first brewing setup, this is one area that I plan to engineer a little differently. There is a lot of room for improvement on the efficiency part. I am already devising how to run a couple of coils with a pump to circulate the water. Or, I might just cheap out and get a plate cooler.

I don’t know how you would brew beer without a truck bed. It just comes in so handy when you are running a budget homebrew setup.

The wit that we brewed went just as smoothly as the amber. Same steps, but more beer consumption and less pictures. After seeing this whole process first hand I have decided that I am going to start off slow and begin with a big pot on the stove, an all grain setup, and probably one gallon batches. I always have to be trying something new so the smaller batches will allow for me to experiment significantly more.

After a week, the fermentation is still going well, the croizen is falling out and we plan to bottle here in a couple more weeks. I am hoping they turn out well enough to share and enjoy more than just a learning experience.