And on the 8th Day, Man made Beer... Part I

The place: Wauwatosa.  The day: February 4, 2012.  They came from as far away as Pewaukee and... other parts of Wauwatosa.  They came with one mission: to make Beer.  Oh, and eat chili for dinner.  Two missions.  They came to make Beer and eat chili, but really mostly to make Beer.  And have fun, but that kind of goes without saying.  So technically three missions, but really two missions, and let's be honest just one truly important mission: to make Beer.  This is their story...

Matt shows off the bucket, which sports a sideways spigot.  Can you say first time brewers?

Pay no attention the sideways spigot - we may have had a beer or two before we started.  Beside the bucket you can see the carboy with the Fermometer affixed to the side.  Yay beer puns!

Everything you need to make beer, or start the Spanish Inquisition.

To make quality beer one needs quality equipment.  Barring that, try using the paraphernalia you see in the photo above.  Don't act like you haven't used all of those things on the occasional Saturday night...

Steep the grains!

First thing to do is steep the grains.  Our inaugural brew is a nut brown ale.  Doesn't that look great?

"Give us beer!"

The natives started getting very restless.  Their demand was simple, yet passionate: Give us Beer!

Phase II: Warm Liquid Goo Phase

After the grains steeped for a while, we removed the sack and stirred in the rest of the ingredients.

"Mild, woody, and fruity"

After adding the hops and giving a final stir, it was time for an ice bath.

Chill out, nut brown ale.

So far each step had been relatively simple.  But this is where things started to get a little more complicated.  Bring on the Spanish Inquisition!

Bung, front and center.

As you are making beer, the biggest threat to a successful brew is contamination.  So all the equipment you see above had to be very clean.  Enter the bottle of sanitizer.

Can you really blame her for that glass of wine?

We filled the bucket with water and mixed in some sanitizer, then cleaned all the equipment.  Then we siphoned the cleaning solution down into the carboy to make sure it was completely clean.

Hooray gravity!

With everything squeaky clean we had to get the brew (still chilling in its ice bath) into the carboy.  The funnel was very helpful for this task.

"Steady... steady... I SAID STEADY!"

Our Baby Beer was safely tucked away in the carboy.  Next we added yeast and the night was almost over.

F*cking gorgeous.

After adding the yeast, we sealed off the top to keep outside contaminants from getting in.  The yeast need two weeks to work their magic.

Men at work.

We took the Beer down to the basement because the instructions said to store in a dark, quiet place.  We tucked it away safely in the corner and admired a job well done.

Do your thing, yeast.

The next step will be to bottle the beer, but that will come in Part II.

God bless you, Baby Beer.

To be continued...