Jay Webster of Redding’s Homebrew Shop teaches Beer Brewing 101 in the store. A free class.
The attentive brewers drink deeply the nectar of knowledge. We also drink in the several handmade beers Jay has arranged for us to sample. We finish with a Victory Belgian Triple that has everyone saying wow. WOW!
Jay demonstrates beer bottle filling technique. I’m already pretty familiar with beer bottle emptying technique.
Thermometer and Hydrometer, two measurement tools of the trade. “Beer is math,” says Jay, which explains a lot about my Sophomore Geometry Teacher. The art and science of fermentation is called Zymurgy.
Cleanliness is next to beerliness, so perhaps beerliness is also next to godliness. Everything involved in the process needs to be cleaned and sanitized with food grade cleaners to avoid imparting unwanted flavors to the beer.
I assemble the ingredients and get ready for a boil.
I begin with boiling the grain to make a kind of grain tea. Brew, baby, brew.
Next, I add the malt extract. The boil soon takes on serious beer olfactory overtones.
Don’t worry, be hoppy. For the last few days, these pungent Cascade hops have been steeping the house with their lovely bittering aroma. Marvelous. Then, Karry asks me if the cat peed in the laundry room or something. Hmpf. Well, to me it smells like the glorious perfume of a thousand foothill springtimes, in pellet form. To each their own.
Next week: It’s alive!
Skip Murphy and his daughter, Erin, are Redding area Realtors with Coldwell Banker. Skip’s blog is at ReallyRedding.com