Monday, February 22, 2010

Kolsch

So in this first entry in the Beer Manifesto I'm going to go over my latest brewing attempt. I'm not going to overly get into any particular area rather give you an overview of the entire process end to end.

So I began my day by going to my favorite home brewing store OSheas (http://www.osheabrewing.com/) with the intention of picking up a couple of items namely a beer to brew and possibly a new burner.
As always I was not disappointed with the selection that they had. I picked up a brewing kit for none other then a German Style Kolsch!!!!! You can hardly by the beautifully crafted beer in the United States but of course they had a kit.

So I began the process of cleaning my supplies (And the house to make space for what can only be a resurgance of good old fashion beer brewing)




























I also built my new burner! I have to say this burner was worth every penny. It got my water boiling quicker. Was fairly easy to use and all in all a good addition.




























I also opened my first beer an absolutely Delicous Gueuze Giradin 1882. I'll review this beer another day but sufficit it to say this beer was an amazingly tasty sour beer and I know my sour beers!

Steeping the Grains





























And popping open my second beer: Blue Moon Grand Cru. A terribly disappointing white beer. I closed my eye to dream of something better (like the Allagash White) but to no avail the beer was still so/so. Take note lovers of blue moon will enjoy this beer.

Doing some reading while I'm hoping my beer









































My lovely assistant Krazy Karl The Mountain Man was prepping the wort cooler.















The wort cooler in action. Sooooooo much better then ice around the side. (Which is what I did my first beer). I think i've got a couple ideas to improve on the cooling next time around. This still is taking a bit longer then I would like it to.

The finished product (Well kind of). It was a long time in the making but I enjoyed each and every minute.