Don't Spank The Carboy

Seeing those fermentation bubbles from a new batch of beer is like hearing a newborn baby cry. With your own hands you have brought new life to the world. And yes, the world is better for it.

The Bierwerkers have been busy this week. Two new batches were birthed on Monday, a strong ale and a summer wheat. Dave’s basement is starting to look like a warehouse. There are now six buckets of beer in varying stages of fermentation. He has set up a new desk for more counter space and better bottle storage. Mike ordered a siphon tube for better wort and beer transfer. I drafted a quick step guide that we can check off as we go through the process. It will help us remember little things like taking proper measurements at certain stages. We are still novices so these things are not yet ingrained into our brew psyche.

Robert did great on his first brew day. Things went longer than anticipated but when you do two batches its going to happen. We learned a lot about how and when to perform certain steps to avoid overlap.

We got Mike’s Imperial Stout transferred to the secondary fermenter but lost a draw tube. Oh snap! (hence, the new siphon tube) But, that was the only major mishap of the day. My beer was safely transferred to a glass carboy, so we also learned that as long as we’re careful we do not need to fear the glass.

I haven’t named my ale yet. We brewed on President’s Day so I’ll probably do some research on beer brewing presidents and work from there. We’re planning some bottling for Saturday so it’s not long before we taste our efforts from the second go round. Here’s some pics from Monday’s session:


Robert Chillin' with his wort


Bob taking the test tube challenge


The bierhouse