After years of being avid beer fans, visiting breweries and chatting with other geeks, Chris and I finally bit the bullet and brewed up our first batch. It's not done - we only started on 18 March, so it has a few more weeks to go - but what brilliant way to spend an afternoon!
We commenced with a kit for Cooper's IPA, The Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian and How to Brew by John J. Palmer. While we had the kit, we ending up following the advice of Papazian. We subbed in in 1 pound of dried malt extract for the sugar provided. (We just happened to have malt extract to hand from visiting Planet Natural - a genius shop for gardeners, home brewers and hot sauce aficionados. Seriously, go there if you're in Bozeman)
Boiling the malt extract with the Cooper's Syrup and water filled our kitchen with the most delicious malty steam. After 45 minutes (the recommended minimum by Papazian), the malty goodness was mixed with more water and left to cool.
As a side note, this is precisely where my Christmas present to Chris of an immersion wort chiller would come in handy. But no, he has yet to cash in on that, so instead we waited...and waited.
This did give us time to proof the yeast, as recommended by Palmer, so the time was not wasted. Once down to the necessary 75 degrees, the yeast was added and now we have a plastic bucket full of very young beer underneath our kitchen table.
Who knows if it will be good? But on the other hand, who cares? It's our first foray into brewing and we had a spectacularly good time. Moreover, this is our beer. We didn't follow the kit instructions, we used ingredients from across the globe and followed in the footsteps of two esteemed forefathers. Whatever the result, this beer is uniquely ours and that is exciting.
Only a few more weeks until we try Indy's IPA...
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