As we prepare to put a dent in our supply of Fear Beer this Saturday, my mind is already jumping to the next batch. Some things I'd like to see are a cider for Thanksgiving and to go into winter sipping spruce ale. I guess I'd better start saving the bottles now.
The best part was standing around, drinking and waiting for the various steps to complete. There's nothing but time to go through the various beer cookbooks on the counter or to look up some techniques online. We took away quite a few lessons from our first batch. Some are easily fixed, requiring only a few minutes of prep and some supplies. Some will require building a small brewery out back (or at the least, a sanitization station with an outdoor sink.)
Better Filtration
We ran into problems filtering the beer as it was going into the carboy and leaving it. We need a large funnel that will fit a large strainer with cheesecloth draped over it. Two methods of filtration should stop the immediate clogging our small strainer suffered from. Also, a better filter to remove more of the yeast for bottling might make the beer come out looking a bit clearer. There's all sorts of other things to add to the beer to achieve this as well.
There has to be a better way...
Better Cooling
A fellow Drexel student and brewing enthusiast, Dave, said he uses a length of copper tubing from home depot submerged in running cold water that brings the wort temperature right down. That definitely sounds better than running to the corner store for bag after bag of ice to cool down the thick-walled glass carboy sitting in the sink. This would easily subtract an hour and a half off of our brewing time.
Better Recording
Eventually, we need pictures and notes the whole way through. For now, while everything is up to experimenting, I figure we'll do what comes naturally and see if it works.
The astounding part of the whole process was the constant realization that professional brewers (and even quite a few homebrewers) are able to reproduce their beer every time they brew it! I love Philly Brewing Co and the fact they're still tinkering with recipes because it has led to a very colorful evolution of both the Rowhouse Red and the Kenzinger. From when they appeared earlier this year to now, each of them have been refined and tuned. With the Fleur de Lehigh on tap around the city right now and another yet-unnamed beer in the pipelines, it's good to see they'll be growing their selection. Yards is producing again too! We had a taste of their first beer brewed in their Philly location at the Oktoberfest at the Armory. Finally--no more Wilkes-Barre beer masquerading as Philly beer.