Making Beer

Sometimes I feel the need to take a break from all the politics, news, world affairs and such and simply relax my brain. Well, there's no better way to relax your brain than to make a batch of beer.

And it's not as complicated as you might think. I started homebrewing several years ago when I went to a brewing supply store called San Francisco Brewcraft on Clement Street to find out how to make mead (wine made with honey instead of grapes).

After making a few successful batches of mead, the owner of the supply shop suggested I try making beer. I thought, "Why not?". So the first batch of beer I made was an India Pale Ale (IPA). The name of the recipe was Nipples of Venus, and it turned out really good. So good, in fact, that I started making other types of beer. I tried a few Stouts and a California Common (Steam Beer) and entered a few of them in competitions. I didn't win any awards, but got some valuable feedback on how to improve on my brews.

And so, yesterday I found myself wondering what to do (or more precisely, what needed to be done) and realized that I had a container of Oatmeal Stout in the back room that needed to be bottled. Here's what it looks like in the secondary fermenter (carboy)....

Since my wife was off to the dance school with the girls and it was just me and my son, I figured I'd do the fatherly thing and teach him one of the most important of all life skills .... Homebrewing.

I started off by showing him the importance of sanitizing the bottles prior to bottling. I'm pretty anal when it comes to cleaning the bottles and equipment.

OK, anal is probably not the best way to describe bottle cleaning, but you get my point.

After being thoroughly washed and rinsed in piping hot water, I put the bottles on this tree to let the water drain out of them.

After draining, the bottles get placed in the oven at low heat for further sanitizing. Those are some clean bottles.

I should take a moment to point out what is probably the most important step in making beer, and that is popping open a bottle of the last batch of brew you made and enjoying it throughout the process.

Pictured above is a pint of IPA that I made last summer. Mmmm...beer.

OK, back to bottling. While letting the bottles warm up in the oven, I pour a little sugar syrup into the carboy and stir it to wake up the yeast and give them one final meal. They'll eat the sugar syrup inside the bottles over the next two weeks which will give the beer it's carbonation.

Here's a shot of the beer ready to be racked (siphoned) into the bottles.

As you can see on the counter, I'm already into my second IPA and looking forward to the day when this Oatmeal Stout will be ready to drink.

Last but certainly not least, here's my faithful sidekick, "Mini-me", learning how to operate the bottle capper. It takes a little effort to get the caps on, but he seems to be picking up the technique quite well. Go Mini-me, go!

When the weather turns more pleasant, I'll head down to the Brewcraft store once again and get supplies for another batch. I'll take pictures and post them here.

Well, that's about it. I hope you enjoyed reading about making your own beer as much as I enjoyed creating it. Thanks go out to Mini-me for most of the photography and for hanging out with his old man for the day.