Sydney gave us beer making equipment for our wedding. (Yes, our wedding was a long time ago. But that’s okay, because as Sydney said, the longer she waited, the better the gift.) I picked out a lot of swanky beer making stuff rather than going with some kit.

I activated my yeast on Thursday afternoon. Friday, I made a starter for the yeast. Today, I brewed.

Things went mostly as planned. I was astounded at how bitter an ounce of hops was as I tossed it into the pot. The recipe kit I was using came with 2 ounces of bittering hops, and 1 ounce of aroma hops. They say it’s 36 IBU’s, which I think is more bitter than I like. So, I only used 1 ounce of the bittering hops. It still smells ridiculously hoppy, so we’ll see how it comes out.

The initial specific gravity was 1.051, which is right on spec: it was supposed to be 1.049-1.053. If all goes well it should be about 6% alcohol by volume.

It’s got to spend about a week in the primary fermenter, then another week in a secondary fermenter. Then I bottle it, and it takes a couple weeks in the bottle to carbonate.

Here’s some pictures.