Homebrewing Again

about 3 months ago, son #1 wanted to learn how to homebrew so he asked me to show him how. I started homebrewing about 23 years ago, a probably the last time that i did it was 15 yrs ago. I bought my original equipment from Milan(?) on Spring Street in NYC, they are closed know but the store has not been leased so the sign is still up.

Back in the days, i did not make anything that i was impressed with, my friends thought that the beer was good but i kind of knew better and it wasn't what i was aiming for. I probably brewed only once or twice a year because i hated bottling. It is time consuming, boring, and very easy to procrastinate from. I did not have space or money to buy a kegging system and a kegerator, and today, i still don't have a system. With this request, i started checking out home brew shop websites, the blood started flowing and my interest was piqued once again. I figured that we can make a half batch, 2.5 gallon as opposed to the standard 5 gallon batch, because if we screw up, it is only a half batch that we would need to drain pour. I started to save and clean bottles and I probably have a case of bottles which ='s 2.5 gallons.

I decided on a wheat beer because it is pretty easy to make. I don't even know if son #1 even likes the style but hey, you have start with something simple. Since you can make a wheat beer with just extract, hops and yeast, we are going to make a dunkleweizen because i want to include grains to the mix so that he get the full extract brewing experience.

When me and my little guy were in Milwaukee, he was showing me a shortcut that he learned from being out there so much, we passed Northern Brewer, a huge home brew store. We stopped and checked it out. I was only going to buy some of the stuff, the light stuff since we were flying, but he talked me into buying everything needed and since he is an expert on how much your luggage weighs even without a scale, i listened. So I bought the extract, specialty grains, siphon hose (which i misplaced and had to go buy some more), and yeast. I wanted to buy liquid yeast and show #1 how to grow a starter but HB Dude told me that since i was flying, the yeast vial might explode so i had to settle on dry yeast. I guess thru time and technology, dry yeasts are getting better.

Today i ran to Maltose Brewing in Monroe, CT to get a fermentation bucket and some more of that missing siphon hose. So tomorrow is the big brew day, at least for us. Question, do we do it indoors on the stove or outside on my Cajun Cooker that i bought 15 yrs ago and never used.

I would like to thank Capt Lawrence for unofficially sponsoring this post, without their many samples today's post could not have happened.