Homebrewing!

One of the other members (Jason) and I have been homebrewing on Mr. Beer. I have been doing it for about 5 years, and about a year for him. We decided to go in on some 5 gallon equipment together and make the leap to bigger batches.

We picked up most of our equipment and two recipe kits at Austin Homebrew Supply. On Friday, February 11, 2011, we brewed our first beer - a Deschutes Black Butte Porter clone. The process was much different than what we were used to with Mr. Beer, but I think it was more satisfying. It was still an extract batch, but now we steeped grains and added our own hops. All in all, it took about 4 or 5 hours, much longer than Mr. Beer.

We should be racking it from the primary to a secondary fermentor this weekend, and bottling in about another two weeks. It would be nice to come close to the Black Butte, but I will be happy if it just tastes good.

Here is a picture of my homebrew/fermentation cabinet.

On the top left shelf is Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 9 & 10, and on the top right is my last Mr. Beer brew - a chocolate stout.

We'll probably brew the next batch - a coconut porter - in early March.

Prost!