My First Home Brew Experience!
I have wanted to try home brewing for such a long time, but I always felt like it was a huge commitment that I didn’t have the time or resources to get into. So when Craft-A-Brew reached out and invited me to celebrate FeBREWary with one of their homebrew kits, I jumped at the chance, and today ladies and gentlemen, I started brewing my own beer.
Although the preciseness of the process was a bit intimidating to me - attention to detail is not my strongest suit - it turned out to be a pretty manageable process. Of course, the four main ingredients in beer are grains, hops, yeast and water. We started out with the grain and water, steeping the grain in hot water. Next comes the malt and because I chose to brew the chocolate milk stout, lactose. Hops get added in next, creating our wort, which boiled for an hour. That wort is then cooled, our equipment was sanitized and we transferred the wort into the gallon-sized bottle. For the final step, we added in the yeast, which will cause fermentation over the next three weeks.
I’m so excited to try my first homebrew! The whole process took around two hours and it was easy to do. I’d recommend getting the help of a buddy. (Thanks, Mike!) Head over to Craft-A-Brew to get your own homebrew kit. They have tons of different styles, from an oak-aged IPA to a Belgian dubbel. Check back on my instagram for updates and my review of the finished product in three weeks!