so it doesn't?

 

I'd say about 1-1.5 hours to cook everything. Then an hour to bottle it.

 

A good analogy to describe brewing beer:

Think of the ingredients in the beer as ingredients in a tea bag. You boil the water, and put the tea bag in. It's ingredients are taken by the water.

You then frement that "tea" in the buckets shown in my picture for a certain time (usually about 1-2weeks, but is dependent on the recipe).

It's really not labor intensive, and is actually pretty fun when you have a bunch of people doing it.

There are alot of things you have to be careful about, such as sanatizing. Always make sure every aspect is sanatized (the lines, pails, carboys, bottles, bottlecaps, etc).

If you want to get in to it, just check out your local store and ask questions.

 

The hardest part is sanitizing everything. Cleaning bottles, removing labels, preping the area etc. Other than that, its easy......I have to say, the Mr Beer kits have a no-rinse sanitizer that is a BREEZE to use....you can actually buy it separately f/ their site.

What kinda water did everyone use? Yuengling down here uses Zephyrhills spring water. The spring is actually really close, so the jugs are cheap and it tastes good by itself. Thats what I used.

 

dont be disappointed if all of the cloudiness doesnt go away. commercial beers are filtered so while some of the sediment will settle, some of it will remain and if you move your bottles a lot (and when you pour them) the sediment with stir back up into the beer. doesnt hurt anything though.

my first brew was an IPA or California Pale Ale. I am due to make another batch or 2 of something or another.... probably once we get settled into our house.

 

good info. I was expecting a headache this am from the 'new beer' but.....all was ok.

 

another tip, maybe something you want to try with your next batch if you want to get rid of some of the cloudiness.....

run your beer from the brewkeg through a coffee filter (#4 filter in a large funnel) and into your bottles. it will grab most of the sediment

 

I'm going to have to try that.
It sucks having to wait a few days to let the sediment settle at the bottom after moving them anywhere.

 

Won't that pull out the yeast and ruin natural carbonation?