tamoore

[QUOTE=tamoore;176118]Brew day #1.....

All in all, it went OK.
First thing is, this is work. Real work. It didn't feel like a hobby at all. I busted my ass all day long. I hope it gets easier.

I woke early and got an 54 minute 6.1 mile run in before a nice hot shower. While I was running, I went over boil procedure, and made sure I knew what I was going to do. and when. I got back at 9:00, and by 10:15, I had water heating.....



My brand new brewpot... ready for the first boil.



This is the first kit I decided to brew; A fairly simple American IPA. 9 pounds of liquid malt extract, a pound and some specialty grains, and some hops and clarifiers....



Specialty grains in a muslin sack. This is to keep the husks and stuff out of the brew pot.....



The pot on the left is going to steep the specialty grains for 30 minutes at 154 degrees. This is important, as we're trying to leech the sugars out of the grains, and this is the ideal temp. The pot on the right is going to be heating 2 gallons of sparging liquid to 170 degrees.



The two row barely starts to steep.



Later in the steeping process - man, does this smell awesome.....



After 30 minutes in the steeping process, it's time to 'sparge' 2 gallons of 170 degree water through the malted barely, to make sure all of the sugars are leeched.



Using the big spoon to stir in the liquid malted extract. ('Real' beer makers will know that this is the 'cheating' part of extract brewing. In real all grain brewing, all of the sugars must be drawn from the grain.)



Nice to meet you, sweet wort. My name is Todd.