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Twelve days ago, I started brewing my own beer. Today, I made a stop at DeFalco’s Home Wine & Beer Supplies to pick up a few things I needed to finalize this brewing project. Lacking a hydrometer was making it pretty impossible to know if fermentation had halted or not, so that was number one on my list. I also picked up a floating thermometer, a bottle of Iodophor for sanitizing my equipment, a bottle brush, a case of 12oz. bottles, a few hundred bottle caps, a bottle capper, and a packet of priming sugar (dextrose).

Assorted brewing supplies

When I got home from DeFalco’s, I prepared to take the first sample of my West Coast Pale Ale from my Mr. Beer brew keg. Surprisingly enough, what poured out looked, smelled, and even tasted a lot like beer. It may have been a bit on the sweet side, but I am not complaining right now. Once carbonated, it will definitely pass as drinkable in my book.

First sample, straight from the brew keg

The hydrometer reads right around 1.010 for the specific gravity right now, at 72°F. According to the handy dandy sheet that came with the hydrometer to correct for temperature I add .002. So we’ll call my reading today 1.012. Since I did not have this instrument when I actually made the wort, I have no earthly idea what the original gravity was. That being the case, I will hold off another few days and take a reading again. If nothing has changed, I am going to start bottling. I’ve not quite decided exactly how I plan on doing the priming part but I’m sure I’ll get at least 30 different suggestions before that time comes!

Hydrometer reading

I think an Apfelwein is likely to be the next thing my Mr. Beer ferments, while I start gathering the equipment required to step up to 5 gallon all-grain batches of beer. This is definitely a lot of fun, and if the result is drinkable beer, I am all for it.

Let’s see if I can finish this challenge, one photo per week of a given theme. Starting with the first week of the new decade, and ending on the final week of 2010. I will be working with some friends to come up with different themes, and we’ll each head out and take our photo each week. Maybe when it is all said and done, I’ll whip up some sort of photo slideshow to showcase them all.

For now, I’ll let Flickr do the work.