8 days in the bottles, and I just couldn't wait any longer to crack one open. So today I had the first taste of my first homebrew. The verdict? Pretty awesome. The first sip was kind of amazing. Crisp, bubbly, some bitterness, some fruity sweetness..... Really, quite nice. But as I continued drinking it seemed to be a bit less mature, with a few hints of sourness to the bitter. Honestly I think if I was drinking a bottle of beer from the store I wouldn't have noticed it, but in my own brew I'm paying close attention. I'm told beer keeps evolving and improving, so I'll let the batch sit a while longer before my next taste. I'm pretty happy though... Really fun that my first homebrew tastes good. Now when do I start smoking this stuff?

Yesterday was bottling day. Woohoo! Oh wait, what a huge pain in the ass this is!  But with a few solid tips from my friend Todd Strauss (the guy's been making beer for 20 years), I skirted a few headaches. First up was to sanitize everything, including the bottles. I found the dishwasher to be a good drying rack: 

Then I siphoned the beer from the carboy to the bottling bucket, which was already filled with dissolved priming sugar to aid in carbonation once bottled. A siphon is kind of amazing. Super simple to use, and it can move 5 gallons of beer in about 3 minutes. Science! 

Next up was filling the bottles. Todd's number one piece of advice was to do this over an open dishwasher to catch various spills. It worked like a charm: 

Then a simple capper:   And I'm done. 24 12-ouncers, and 12 22-ouncers: 

There was only one casualty of the day, I got a little over zealous with the capper and smashed a bottle: 

Nice color. The priming sugar made it too sweet for my tastes right now, but I'm hopeful that will fade while they finish in the bottles. I've heard I should wait anywhere from 10 days to 4 weeks, so I'm not sure how long I have ahead of me before I can take a taste. I figure I'll crack one open on Super Bowl Sunday (11 days from now). Now that's a reason to give a shit about football! 

I haven't destroyed anything or hurt anyone yet, so I'm off to a good start. Based on advice from one of my home-brew books, I attached a tube to the top of the carboy to help expel very active fermentation byproducts. It's spitting all kinds of frothy belches into a spare growler, so all seems to be good. I'll put in a water lock (I think that's what it is called) after today when things supposedly start to chill out. But there is nothing chill about this right now. Check out this short video of the party in my carboy:

Good times.

So my first day of acting as a brewmaster seemed liked a success, though I suppose I'll have to wait another 3 weeks to find out. The worst part was sanitizing everything: 
Only because all the books scare the crap out of you about keeping everything sanitized. Then they proceed to tell you to relax, while you're freaking out because of what they told you before. Sound advice I suppose. Anyway, the total process took about 2-3 hours to boil the malt and hops, and transfer to the carboy. Here are a few shots of boiling wort:   And this is what hops look like:  They are about the coolest thing ever. They smell like an incredible combination of beer and kind bud. I kind of couldn't stop smelling them... liked 'em so much I even took a bite of one which at first was pretty tasty. But 30 minutes later when that taste was still in my mouth I was wishing I was more sensible. That's a wish I often wish for myself. 

Before I added the yeast to the wort I took a measurement of the Original Gravity. It was 1.072. I don't know what i'll do with that information yet, but I'm told its essential. So there it is. 

Now I pretty much sit tight for a week or two and hopefully beer-type things will start to happen. Think I'm going to crack open a few beers while I wait. 

Walking through Prospect Park yesterday morning I was met with a bright blue sky and a very brisk breeze. Fall had arrived - its since completely left in favor of a return to summer - but at the time it put me in the mood for a bratwurst. I can get busy with almost any sausage (what did he just say?), but I adore a bratwurst with onions and peppers on a fall afternoon... or better yet, enjoying one at a saturday Oktoberfest with a stein of beer. Unfortunately its a little early for that, but once i had bratwurst on the brain, I had to cook one up.

This approach yields a perfectly juicy and crispy bratwurst sandwich. After all was said and done, I was quite pleased with myself! Its super easy, and really terrific. The only error on my part was not confirming i had a spicy brown mustard in the fridge. After everything was assembled I found a fridge with only dijon in it. It worked out fine, but definitely pick up a bottle of Gulden's! Here's a gallery of the process followed by my super-simple recipe: 

Ingredients:

• 16-24 oz of beer (a local oktoberfest if you can find it, aka Brooklyn Brewery)
• 4 bratwursts (i just found boar's head at the grocery, but i'm hopeful some of my favorite local pork farms will have them soon)
• 1 white onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (no rings, you want long strips)
• 1 red bell pepper cored, seeded, and thinly sliced
• 4 big sandwich rolls (heroes, hoagies, etc.)
• 1 Tablespoon cooking oil (canola, olive, etc)
• Brown/spicy mustard 
• Pickles and chips as sides

Process:

• Put the beer, onions, and peppers in a medium sized pot large enough to fit the four brats, and bring to a boil
• Reduce the heat to medium, toss in the brats, cover and cook for 20 minutes
• Meanwhile get your grill going to hot*
• After 20 minutes, drain the entire pot into a strainer reserving the brats, onions, and peppers
• Throw the brats on the grill, and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown with a few charred bits
• Remove the brats from the grill and let sit for a few minutes (they will be insanely hot right now)
• Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil (any oil will do) in a skillet over medium-high heat
• Toss in the reserved onions and peppers, and sauté for 5-8 minutes until they start to caramelize/char a bit
• Now you're ready to assemble.
• Open up each roll and pile on a bed of the onion/peppers mixture
• Add a bratwurst on top of the onions, and lather on some spicy brown mustard
• Serve with chips, a pickle, and a cold bottle of the same beer you cooked with

* If you are without a grill (OMG!), you could easily pan fry these for the same amount of time in a dry, smokin' hot cast iron skillet. Cooking these over high heat will give you that crisp exterior crunch you're looking for. 

 

How can you not buy a six pack of pale ale, in cans, called porkslap and featuring two pigs chest bumping? I sure couldn't say no. Pretty good stuff I gotta say. If u see it, pick it up.