Sunday the 19^th turned out to be a very nice day so around 9 or so I decided to play fast and loose I turned it into a brew day. Around 10 I drove over to Beer crazy in Urbandale and bought an extract kit. While they have a lot of kits there, I choose the Kolsch because it was one of a few kits that had specialty grains in it.  To me this kind of kit makes a better quality beer than an all malt kit. I have told myself the first year back I would brew either extract or partial mash. I want to get a good feel for things before I jump into all grain.

The Wyeast I choose swelled up in 3 hours!! it as ready to go when pitching time arrived

I saw the kit came with dry yeast so I ditched that for a fresh pouch of Wyeast 2565 which is a true Kolsch yeast I think the yeast upgrade was money well spent. For being an impromptu brew day the boil part went off without a hitch. Normally I am a stickler for following directions to the letter but this kit I was forced to freestyle a bit. The kit called for a 2.5 gallon boil but I went for a full 5 gallon boil and stepped my grain 5 minutes longer than the directions called for. Also by boiling the full 5 gallons I will increase my hop utilization which to me is not a bad thing Kolsch or not I love my hops!

This 5 gallon boil strategy came back to bite me in the end. I will not have a wort chiller until this weekend and so I was going to rely on an ice bath to cool things down. My first beer the ice bath worked great I took four bags of Ice from the basement deep freeze. I filled the girl’s kiddy pool with ice and water.  This cooled everything down real quick last time this time not so much! I did not have a lot of ice on hand and it was 40 outside not 25 like the first brew day. It took 3 hours to chill it down to pitching temps! After 45 minutes I put it into the carboy and sealed it just to protect it from infection.

 Finally around 7pm it was cool enough to pitch my yeast so I pitched it and wrapped it up in a blanket and left it alone for the night.

Monday morning I went down stairs and BOOM!  The Kruasen had bubbled up through the airlock! I had a very vigorous fermentation on my hands! It was clear the yeast was working great and my airlock was overwhelmed!!! I had no time to correct this as I had to go to work but when I got home I knew I would need to stop at Menards and get stuff for a blow of tube!!!

 So on the way home I got stuff for the blow off tube and rigged it up last night. So far it seems all of the little setbacks have caused no harm!  I did met my OG of 1.42 and my yeast is working great So for now we will let it sit and sometime next week I will transfer to a secondary until then cheers

Beer

Beer What a wonderful thing it is and if you love beer like I do today is a wonderful time to be alive. Gone are the Days where all you had to choose from was bland beer mass produced with low quality ingredients and cheap adjuncts. Today a trip to your local grocery store for a six pack can be a daunting task. The amount of quality beer and styles available to us today is nothing short of amazing. We are witness to a beer revolution that was born in the basements and closets of home brewers all across America. These brewers treat beer as a craft and are focused on making a quality product with quality ingredients that tastes great. It’s nice that these days it is as easy to go to your local brewery and pick up a growler of your favorite freshly brewed beer as it is to go to gas station and get a six-pack. So that brings us to this blog this will be a place for me to share my beer experiences with you.  Topics will range from what I am drinking, what’s brewing and local breweries throughout the Midwest.

Let me give you a little back ground in on me I brewed my first batch of beer sometime in 1998 and I made a few batches until 2000 when I brewed a stout and it went horribly awry and I had to drain poor the entire batch. That experience coupled with lack of a good local homebrew shop I decided to give up. Now after a 12 year break I am back with a new set up and a new passion for home brewing. I just finished my first batch. I started with an Apple Ale kit from Midwest supply it turned out better that could have hoped and with that first batch under my belt I am looking forward to a brewing surge of sorts in the next few weeks. Next weekend my wife and I ill being going to the Twin Cities I have tours booked for Surly, Summit and Steel Toe brewing I also plan on stopping by northern brewer and picking up a wort chiller and few kits until then cheers!