Batch 3 - Anchor Steam Clone

This beer started with this recipe, substituting the type of yeast. Because my pitching temperature was quite low for batch 2, I decided to skip the step of cooling the wort. However, I didn't think to check the temprature to see if this was wise until after pitching my yeast. Turns out I was pitching into 102 degree wort. Afraid for my yeast (a lager, no less), I put the entire bucket in an ice water bath, and it made it down to 70 eventually. After the first day I still didn't see any bubbles, so I added some extra yeast I had saved. After the second day it started bubbling like crazy.

The temperature in my basement is about 60, so I let it sit for about a month until the bubbles slowed down to about nothing. After that it was time for a tasting. Quite afraid of anything from a bananna-tasting beer from the high temperatures to a gym sock beer from bacteria because it took so long to start bubbling, I smelled it and took a sip. It's quite good. Not fruity like I'd feared, no sign of bacteria. It's much better than even the light wheat. I boiled 3/4 cup of corn sugar in some beer and added it, then bottled the batch.

Status: Made about 50 bottles. I love this beer. It's not only good, but it's better than any beer I've tasted. Sure, I'm biased, but it's really great. It's very hoppy, not terribly bitter, and a bit dry. It doesn't suffer from carbonation problems like my last beer.

Batch 2 - Light Wheat

This is the light beer that came in my homebrew kit. Being my first batch, I followed the instructions on the kit.

Results: Light but tasty beer. Could use more carbonation.

Status: 50 bottles ready to drink. Well, more like 40 now.

Batch 1 - Simple Cider

Batch 1 was about as simple as brewing gets.

Ingredients:
1 Gallon plastic bottle of store-bought pasturized apple juice (the clear kind)
Some ale yeast (small sample taken from Batch 2)

Tools:
Drill
Straw
Small water bottle
Hot glue gun
Boiling water
Small container (used a plastic cottage cheese container)
Tube and bottling cane
Sanitized bottles and caps
Bottle capper

Steps:
1. Remove cap, drill hole.
2. Hot-glue straw to cap.
3. Boil your small container.
4. After glue dries, boil assembly for about a minute.
5. Pour about a cup of juice into container, seal, put in refrigerator.
6. Pitch yeast. I just poured a bit of ale yeast from batch 2, but you could also pour in about a teaspoon of dry ale yeast. Follow directions on package.
7. Screw cap back on juice bottle.
8. Fill small water bottle about 3/4 full of your boiling water (it's ok to cool it down first).
9. Put end of straw in water bottle - this is now an airlock that will let CO2 out of the bottle but will not let air back in.
10. Wait a week.
11. When cider tastes right, boil the bit of juice that you saved and add it back into the juice bottle.
12. Siphon juice into bottles and cap.
13. Wait a few days.

Results:
Very nice cider. A little bit on the sweet side, and quite a bit over-carbonated. If I were to do it again I'd wait a bit longer than a week before bottling or skip the remove/reintroduce a cup of juice step.

Status:
These went quickly. Made about 10 bottles, and none are left.



Cider Brewing Setup



Ciderlicious Label