My AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING friends Sarah, Adel, and Shannon bought me a gift certificate to make my own beer at The Occasional Brewer in Wellington. They have all of the equipment and recipes, and they'll help you through the process but you do most if yourself. I decided (after a LOT of thought) to make a blonde ale. It's going to make 40 liters, so we're going to party at the hostel when it's done!
On June 20th, off I went! I started the day by meeting Eugene, my helper for the day. He'd prepared the correct amount of grain for me and started heating the water, so I was ready to jump right in. The recipe is different for each beer, so the couple next to me that was brewing a Pale Ale did a lot of different things.
During those minutes, I went and got a coffee at the amazing cafe next door. >:)
Next was to empty the brew into the fermenters! I sanitized everything, and emptied about 20 liters into two different fermenters. The liquid ran past cold liquid going the other way in the counterflow chiller, which cooled it down fast. As the brew drained out of the boil pot, all of the hops we had swirled to the center appeared!
I learned a LOT and I can't wait to taste the beer. I really want to learn more about it so that I can change things up and influence the flavor, rather than just follow one specific recipe. I know a lot of people brew in their kitchens, but I wonder if there's a place like The Occasional Brewer in Chicago! It'd be nice to do it with the proper equipment.
I'll go back to bottle the beer on July 4th, and then it'll still be another 2 weeks before it's carbonated in the bottles to be able to drink it. I'm going to call it Captain Kiwi, after an amazing shirt I saw in Wanaka (sadly, it was actually the NZ Air Force logo, but it looked like a Kiwi in Captain America's shield.) Adel made an AMAZING PHOTOSHOP if I can find a label printer!
I went back to bottle "Captain Kiwi" with my friends Amy, Josh, and Daisy. I was lucky to have their help as it turned out that it would have been a time-intensive project on my own!
The first step was to stare lovingly at the beautiful, beautiful beer.
We dried the bottles and boxed them up, and drove them back to a secret storage location at the hostel >:) (with a brief detour at an AMAZING cheap food market!).
SUCCESS. VICTORY. And in one month, when the carbonation has finished (it would be much shorter if I could keep the bottles somewhere warm, but there's nowhere insulated in Wellington :/)... WE WILL DRINK!
It was a painfully long wait to drink the beer, colored by horror when I tried a bit 3 weeks in and it had barely carbonated. But not to worry -- Daisy and I gave the beer a "gentle swirl" a la Eugene's instructions, and moved it into her room where it was warmed. By the end of the first week of August, it was ready to drink. Though sources say it will only get better with age, it's hard to see how it will get better, since it's DELICIOUS.