Darren and I visited the Seven Bridges Cooperative (an organic beer brewing and coffee roasting co-op) on Friday to pick up ingredients to make a new batch of ho
mebrew. We figured that we would try to brew this one before we move, since it will likely be too hot to brew beer in Davis during the summer (though in the fall, we plan to bring the kit to my parent's house to have a lager making brew contest [everybody wins!]). Instead of getting raw ingredients to re-make the Sierra Pale Ale, the lady at the co-op convinced us to go with one of their pre-made kits. Darren and I agreed that this was a good choice, since the recipe from the Sierra Pale Ale didn't include exact quantites, and we didn't record those last time. The kit that we picked up, the Organic Pale Ale, had just been assembled a few days before, so freshness is on our side!
The kit includes:
7 lbs Briess Pale Malt Extract
0.5 lbs Briess Caramel 20 ^oL Malt
0.5 oz Belgian Challenger Hops (pellets) -- bittering
0.5 oz New Zealand Cascade Hops (pellets) -- flavor
0.5 oz New Zealand Hallertaur Hops (pellets) -- aroma
0.5 tsp Irish Moss --takes the place of whirlflock tablet; is apparently main ingredient
1 Vial White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast
Step-by-step instruction pamphlet
Complementary "Illustrated Guide to Brewing Organic Beer Kits" pamphlet
We also bought 60 #BE9 bottle caps for the bottling process later.
Today, we are brewing the beer in this kit. I am playing the role of overseer and record-taker, since I am feeling under the weather today. Fortunately for us, Darren has all but finished his PhD dissertation and the talk for his defense, so he has minimal work to do at the moment--he did a bit of lab work this morning, and then came home for lunch to start this process. After lunch, Darren meticulously sanitized all of the brewing equipment in our bucket with a water/iodine mixture. The glass carboy is scrubbed clean, and is presently soaking in sanitizer out side.
Step #1 of the step-by-step instructions tells us to soak the grains in hot water for 15-20 minutes, below 180 F. However, we are modifiying this step and following the instructions of last time, which is supposed to maximize sugar and malt release: heat to 155 F, turn off heat and let sit for 20 mins with lid on. Darren placed the grains in the cheesecloth sack from last time so that we can easily strain it once they've soaked. I'll write more as we proceed.
The brew kittens (who are hardly kittens anymore) are non-plussed.
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