A New Brew Day

On September 23rd, 2011, I brewed an orange Belgian beer that comforted me throughout the mild winter. I can't believe it has been almost 6 months since my last brew. I still have a lot of beer in the basement, but with warmer temperatures, comes Brew Season. On Sunday, I fired up the burners and brewed a Belgian Dubbel. 

The first step was to assemble my new brewing kit. Nicole bought me a turkey fryer kit for my birthday and it has been sitting in a box all winter. TJ was there to supervise.

TJ may have been cute that day, but he was basically in my way at all times. 

We had enough sun to melt the roof snow, but it never got above freezing.

Here is the new turkey/beer frying kit, although no oil will touch this pot. It allows me to boil more water than my last kettle and the burner puts out a lot more flame.

TJ continued his masterful supervision. I assume that Wade Laughlin has the same expression when watching his kids during track practice. 

The kit was comprised of some liquid malt extract, a little dry malt, some hops, and a pound of dark Belgian candi sugar. My yeast was already cooking in a starter I had made a couple days earlier. 

What I love most about this new kettle is the small hole in the lid for a thermometer. Monitoring the temperature of  my water has never been easier. This gives me more time to drink the fruits of previous labors while engaging in more labors. It's a vicious cycle. 

Only 2 ounces of hops were added to this brew. I don't think I have ever used these varieties before. I might plant some hop plants this spring. 

The first hop addition is always the sweetest. I love ripping open that package and taking a big sniff of the earthy goodness. Honestly, half of the fun in brewing are the smells.

Things got a little dicey when I wasn't paying attention. I nearly boiled over.

In the picture below, you can see the boil reaching the very top of the pot. Close call, but I caught it in time.

Seriously, click on this picture and zoom in. 

Jeremy brought James over so the little one could get his first smell of brewing. 

TJ made sure to get his first smell of James.

Everything went great. I was able to quickly cool the wort down after an hour-long boil by surrounding the pot with snow. It was the first good use I've had for snow in years.

I should have taken a picture of my yeast starter, but I didn't. After only a few hours of pitching my yeast, those bad boys went to town on my beer. This one is going to be good. I know it. Since I am the Omar Little of brewing, I never take starting gravity; so I don't know what the alcohol content is, but (rest-assured) there will be alcohol.

Nicole only let me take one picture and this is it. There is really no good reason why she wouldn't want to be photographed since she is a really pretty lady. It was a little early in the morning, though. 

Thank you for taking the brew day pictures, Nicole.

Beer ready for consumption in two months!