A batch of Backyard Pilsner

Sooner or later, things had to break my way and point me back towards homebrewing, and tonight is the night. Angela and Savannah are away at 5th grade camp, so Joshie and I are batchin' it at home, making homebrew!

It's remarkable that I've gone from brewing as a single man in a one bedroom apartment to brewing as a husband and father of two, and having my six year old boy "help out," but that's where we are tonight. Josh took care of dipping the Cara Pils grains like a teabag and stirring with a big wooden spoon while Daddy wrestled with the *&*($!! electric can opener to get the two cans the malt extract syrup came in. At 8:30pm (it's a school night) he trundled off to bed, not without protest, and Daddy fired up the garage computer/jukebox with my day-old copy of AC/DC's new Black Ice album being pumped out of the main machine back in the living room. Life in the garage that is the Cavant Drive Fire Brewery is good, despite staring straight down the double-barrels of an Obama presidency combined with the worst economic times this side of the Great Depression, but hey, what the hell. I've got the next 8 years to drink homebrew, I hope.

This is a pretty straightforward brew, and being that it's been so long since I've had the chance, I'm not trying to do anything fancy; just trying not to screw it up. Being that Adventures in Homebrewing moved from their (somewhat) convenient location on the western outskirts of Dearborn to god knows where, I found the local brewer's supply house, Kuhnhenn's, over on Chicago Rd and Mound more than willing to sell me supplies. Of course, this means some minor differences in ingredients:

• Munton's Gold Continental Pilsner "40 pt beerkit": 6#, 6oz of hopped malt extract syrup
• Wyeast San Francisco Lager Yeast WLP810 (in pitchable liquid form)

Other than those two things, the ingredients are pretty standard:

• 5 gallons of Kroger's finest house brand Spring Water


• 12oz of Cara Pils


• 1 oz of Saaz hops (aromatic)


• 1oz of Perl hops (bittering)

1. With Joshua's help, I brought two gallons of the spring water to 160F with the 12oz of Cara Pils grains in my muslin teabag. Stopped at 160F for a 10-minute protein rest. Note that I used an old broomstick secured across the stock pot's handles with spring clamps to hold the bag upright by its tie string. Josh couldn't drop it in and was able to "dip" them up and down. It made him happy...
2. Opened the two cans that the Muntons HME came in. Note to self: find the manual can opener, the electric one doesn't like the shape of these cans. Added these to the wort, and began bringing to a boil...a loooooong process taking about 40 minutes for a rolling boil to start.
3. Boiled for 30 minutes.
4. Added 1/4 TSP Irish Moss to the brew after removing the Perle hops. Did this by measuring them, then sprinkling them in with my fingers while stirring. Boiled for 15 minutes. (Okay, it was 16 minutes 30 seconds. Have me shot.)
   
5. Added in the Saaz hops and continued boil for an additional 5 minutes
6. While on the final 5 minute boil, got the 3 gallons of spring water I had in the freezer and poured into the carboy. Yes, the handles were frozen.
7. Turned off the heat, double-triple sterilizing the strainer by having it in the boiling pot the last minute or two. Promptly put it into the funnel.
   
8. Donned my welding gloves and added the wort to the three gallons of cold water.
9. Measured an initial wort temperature of 90F. At this temp, O.G. was 1.043
10. Pitched the liquid yeast, put the cork in the carboy, and shook hard to aerate the wort.
11. Attached the blow-off tube, and ran the line into a refilled water jug to act as an airlock. Put the whole works into the fermentation room, i.e. the basement on top of the washing machine.
12. Started cleaning up.
    

We started at about 7PM (it took awhile to find the campstove!). I'm finishing these notes at 10:41, with Metallica's new Death Magnetic rolling in the background.

Soon: bottling!