Homebrewing Beer Episode TWO, American Pale Ale.

The beer stays here until time to bottle.

Saturday we consulted our friend Mark who is an old pro at home brewing and he suggested we open up our brew bucket and take a look.  The air lock has ceased bubbling and the darkness that had formed at the top has dropped to the bottom of the pail.  It smells like beer!  It looks like beer!

He suggested we siphon the brew into the bottling bucket so Brian installed the spigot and we washed and sterilized all of the pieces and utensils that would touch our brew.  The idea was to siphon off the clear liquid then to let it sit undisturbed a bit longer to let it develop and to let it continue to clear. 

We accomplished all of this in no time and felt reassured we are on the correct path in our brewing endeavor!

I must admit I was worried that we had not let the liquid cool enough before throwing the yeast.  I was sure it was under 115 degrees F  (the temp. for mixing yeast and liquid for bread baking)  but after the fact I remembered the directions said to cool it to 65-70 degrees.  What the heck is that all about??  Well anyway I had not checked the temperature because I knew we had added 14 quarts of cool water to only 6 quarts of boiling water and I knew from the feel through the side of the bucket it was not too hot had I been making bread!  So I was very relieved it appears to be a good brew!

Brian brought in an adjustable low stool on casters from the garage and we positioned the bottling bucket on it and the brewing bucket on a table and it siphoned it off easily.  Then we were able to just roll the pail after placing the lid on, to an out of the way corner to rest a few more days until we bottle.  Until then it will just sit undisturbed.

NOTE: See Homebrewing Beer Episode ONE on 11/15/12 for the beginning of this process.