So, I think I’m done with my fermentation stage. It has been a about 8 days of fermentation. I took my blow-off tube out four days into the fermentation and my carboy has had the airlock inserted ever since. I took a whiff of the tube and it smelled pretty sweet with a subtle hint of beer smell. I’m targeting a Riverwest Stein, so that should be right on. Activity has come to a stop with no bubbles coming out of the airlock. There is < 1% bubbles on the top, so maybe a very small amount if any fermentation is still going on. The wort has now turned to beer and has really cleared and has a pretty sunset orange about it.
So after purchasing a beer kit from The Frugal Homebrewer in Waukesha, I’m attempted my first home brew. I’m attempting a clone of one of my favorites, Lakefront Brewery’s Riverwest Stein. I ended up buying plastic, reusable PET bottles from Mr. Beer via Amazon.com because I won’t need to worry about breaking or exploding glass and the need for caps and bottlecapper. I also bought a John Bull lager kit, which mixes a special blend of malt extract and hops into a can which looks like melted caramel. I bought an additional 3lb of malt extract from the brew shop, per the owners recipe recommendation.
It took me about an hour to sanitize all of my equipment. I started the brewing process on 7.22.08. The brew went pretty smooth and made our house smell like a brewery for about 10 hours. I have my wort (the boiled mixture of hops, yeast and water) fermenting with my dry yeast in the basement. It is about 70 degrees, which should work good for a lager beer fermentation (lager is bottom fermenting and ale is top fermenting).
