Watch Out! It's Duff Man!

Today was an interesting day to say the least. Sunday, on God's day, Nick decided to brew his first batch of honey brown ale. As promised, it was a family affair, minus Charlie and Geno who are too curious to be all that helpful.

The first thing that Nick had to do was to boil one and a half gallons of water. Once the water is boiling, you then need to steep the grains into the water for fifteen minutes. This step was quite interesting because you put this mixture into a sock. The next step was to add the malt extract and allow this to boil for one hour. At different stages, different hops were added for flavor. At the very end of this process you add a pound of Minnesota honey which becomes what is known in the beer world as wort. Once the wort has been chilled, it is time to sanitize your fermenting supplies, and then add three gallons of water to your glass carboy. Once this is done, pour in your wort, pitch your yeast, put your air lock on, and then you wait. An active fermentation can take a week or two. This is the completion of phase one. Please feel free to view the slideshow below to see this process first hand!