Brewing Day!

So the last time I brewed was about a year ago... My poor beer making tools have been lying unused since then! Oh the shame! So I had a chance to go down and buy my supplies from the local homebrew shop. Nice guy--pretty knowledgeable and he helped me get what I needed. This time around it will be an apricot wheat beer. I am really looking forward to how this will turn out! Although it won't be ready for the Paschal celebration, it should be done soon after. 7-10 days for the first fermentation and another 7-10 days in the secondary fermenter, then another 7-10 days to bottle condition it. Should be lovely!

This time, I also was able to invest a little in a wort (pronounced wert) chiller. I bought some copper tubing, a couple of fittings, some clear tubing, and a few hose clamps and voila! Homemade wort chiller! I made it for about half the cost they were wanting for them in the store!

Next, I boiled my grains for about 30 minutes, removed them, added 6 2/3# malt extract, brought it to a boil, added 1 2/3 oz hops for bittering, and boiled for about an hour.

Finally, I added the last bit of hops right at the end for a little aroma, and chilled it down with my new immersion chiller. I added cold water to help bring down the temp, enough to make a little over 5 gallons, then put it in the primary fermenter after pitching in the yeast.

In a week or so, on to the secondary fermenter for clarification! :) Cheers!