Tonight, I siphoned the beer out of the carboy and into a white plastic brewing bucket that had a spigot for bottling near the bottom.  I added the priming sugar to two cups of water and boiled it for 5 minutes before adding it and stirring it into the beer.  I believe I did this backwards, I think I should have put the priming sugar solution into the bucket first and then siphoned the beer into it and let it mix that way.  But, live and learn, hopefully it doesn’t make much of a difference.

My main concern is that I thought I had 5 gallons of wort in the carboy when I started and I know you lose some with the blow off bucket but I only ended up siphoning 3.5 gallons into the bucket.  I left a little bit in the bottom of the carboy with the spent yeast.  I hope I didn’t mess up my initial measurements and not add enough water.  Only time will tell.

I had already cleaned and sanitized my bottles earlier this morning so I was ready to go.  I got all of the beer bottled and capped.  I ended up with just about 2 cases of beer.  I put them in a quiet place to carbonate and the rest is now out of my hands.

Now I just have to figure out what I want to brew next!

For my first batch I used a Brewers Best kit.  It included all the ingredients I needed.  I just had to provide the equipment.  The beer that I made is an Irish Stout and Brewers Best describes the beer on the box as “An Irish style dark ale with full body and flavor and a creamy head of foam from the added Maltodextrin.  Dark malts and grains provide for a huge taste”.

The ingredients for this beer were:

• Two 3.3lb Cans of Dark Malt Extract
• 12 oz. of Crushed Crystal Malt
• 4 oz. of Crushed Roasted Barley
• 4 oz. of Black Patent Malt
• 1.5 oz. of Argentine Cascade Flavoring Hops, Alpha Acid 3.2% (pellets)
• 1.25 oz. of Palisade Bittering Hops, Alpha Acid 6.7% (pellets)
• 8 oz. Maltodextrin
• 1 pack of Beer Yeast

I started by gathering my Homebrew Equipment and getting it all clean and sanitized.   Here is an image I took of all my equipment as I was getting it together.  A lot of people seem to use a Bleach and Water solution to clean their equipment but I opted for a One Step No-Rinse Cleaner by LD Carlson that I picked up at a homebrew store.  Hopefully that was a smart decision.  I believe it’s an oxygen based cleaner but I am not entirely sure.  I know that keeping the equipment clean is one of the most important steps so I hope this stuff did the trick.  I started around 11:30 and it took me about a half an hour to get my gear together and get it cleaned and ready to go.

The first step was to put 2 gallons of water into my brew pot and add the grains.  I put the Crushed Crystal Malt into one steeping bag and the Roasted Barley and Black Patent Malt into the other bag.  I put them into the water before applying any heat.  The instructions were to steep the bags in the water, bring it up to 150 – 160 degrees and let steep for 30 minutes.  It took about 10 minutes to bring it up to temperature so the grain bags were in there for a total of 40 minutes.  The water was pretty close to black by the time I was done with this step.

The next step was to bring it up to a boil and then add the two cans of liquid malt extract.  I soaked the two cans of extract in hot water beforehand so it would pour into the brewpot easier.  I was surprised at how long it took me to bring it back up to a boil after added the warmed liquid malt extract but the concoction was smelling good so I didn’t mind tending to it.  After it was brought back up to a boil, I added the Maltodextrin (which is a type of sugar) and the Cascade hops.  At this point it was time to grab a cold beer (Sam Adams Oktoberfest) and let it boil for 55 minutes.  I got up to stir it every 5 – 10 minutes.  When it reached the 55 minute mark I added the palisade hops and let it boil for another 5 minutes.

While it was finishing it’s boil, I prepared an ice bath that I could stick the brewpot in to cool it down to 70 degrees.  Once I got the wort cooled down, I put a funnel with a strainer into my carboy and slowly poured the wort in.  I had to stop 4 or 5 times and use a spatula to push the solids away from the strainer to let the liquid flow through.  Once I had all of the wort into the carboy I filled it up with clean water.  I was supposed to bring it up to the 5 gallon mark.  It’s a 6.5 gallon carboy and has no markings to tell you how high 5 gallons should be.  I did my best to guesstimate and hope I got it right.  I think when this batch is done I will use a sharpie to mark the gallon and half gallon marks.

After the water was added, I poured in the yeast and swirled the wort around inside the carboy to mix it all up.  Hopefully I didn’t over agitate it (if that’s even possible, I don’t know).  I added my airlock and was proud to have my first batch ready for fermentation.

I don’t have a closet or dark place that I could store it in but I know it needs to be kept in a cool dark place.  I cut a hole in the top of a black trash bag just large enough for the top of the carboy and airlock to fit through and keep the rest of it covered.  I used a rubber band to keep the black trashbag secured.  I am not sure why but it needs to be stored in a dark place, natural and fluorescent light can affect it.  I will have to do more research to find out why.

I would love to get some feedback and tips on what I did right or wrong.  If you have any suggestions please leave a comment.

Steeping the Grains

Me at the Brewpot

Boiling the Wort

End of Today's Work, Time for Another Beer