Me And The Homebrews: Part 4

Making beer is an ancient and time-honored art; beer provides sustenance for the fast and pleasure for the palette. Me and the Homebrews is a chronicle of a bunch of guys following in the footsteps of the great Abbey Monks and their brews. In their honor, we domestic monks chose a Belgian style Dubbel Ale; this potent brew weighs in at 8% ABV.

• Part 1: The Gathering
• Part 2: Preparation Day
• Part 3: The Brewing
  

Chillin' out: Once the hour-long boil completed, the next phase called for cooling the wort, or unfermented beer, as rapidly as possible to minimize the chance of bacteria spoiling the brew. The copper coils of the wort chiller were inserted into the brew kettle and cold water ran through the tubing; the super conductive copper acts as a heat exchanger between the cold water and the hot wort.


Ice, ice, baby: For an added measure, the Homebrews rigged up this ice water bath for the water hose to lower the temperature of the water entering the wort chiller. The conductive properties of the rubber hose are very low compared to copper, but every little bit helps.

Lesson learned: The intake garden hose was an older hose whose fitting was not tight with that of the wort chiller. A small leak necessitated that the lid of the brew kettle be used to prevent contaminating water from entering the wort. Note to Homebrews: leak test the wort chiller connection first!


Big drain: All 5 gallons of wort chilled down to below 68° in roughly 25 minutes, which was excellent for this 85° day. The cooled wort was transferred into the waiting carboy using a length of plastic tubing and ball valve spigot. The goal is to leave as much cold break (sludge) in the brew kettle as possible. The Homebrews took a hydrometer reading at this point. The target OG (original gravity) was 1.065; our reading: 1.064! Not bad for rookies! We pitched the yeast into the carboy and popped on the bung and fermentation lock. The Homebrews' first batch was loving laid to rest in the basement to achieve the first stage of two week primary fermentation.

What? Wort?: The taste of the wort was sweet and bitter all at the same time: bitter like strong iced tea whose sugar has all fallen to the bottom. The fermentation process over the next several weeks will convert the raw sugar into alcohol. Subsequent fermenation makes the bubbles. Since our brew is rated at 2 months incubation, the Homebrews will likely force carbonate the Ale in the keg to shorten up that phase.

Here's to the Homebrews!