The Joys of Brewing Beer

Sorry I haven't posted anything lately. I've been busy doing things with my son who is visiting me for the summer. Typically, I think my son occupies his free time playing video games and not much else. In an attempt to interject some variety into his adolescent life, I decided to let him help me brew a batch of beer.

For my birthday, my wife bought me a beer brewing kit. The kit she selected was a chocolate milk stout from Craft-A-Brew. Below are a few pictures I took of the initial process which only took about an hour and a half to complete.

Steeping the hops:


Fermentation (with carboy):


Another shot of the carboy:


Fermentation with carboy and overflow tube:


I haven't taken any pictures since the initial fermentation process and I'll admit that I think I did something wrong somewhere along the way. The fermentation process went well, I think. The overflow tube bubbled in the glass of water, letting the gases escape and I got a nice build up of suds. However, the suds died down after I installed the breather cap (I think this is supposed to act as a relief valve of sorts). I added the cocoa nibs a week ago per the instructions and have another week to go before the beer is supposed to be ready. However, there doesn't seem to be any carbonation in the carboy and I can see a small layer of sediment in the bottom, which leads me to believe I've screwed up this batch in some way.

I guess I'll find out in a week's time whether or not I screwed it up. If so, I'll purchase another kit and try it again. In the meantime, I have some professionally brewed craft beer in the refrigerator to enjoy. I hope I can eventually create a batch that I've brewed myself as it would be cool to have created some fine beer myself.

Thanks for stopping by!