An exciting note. I happened to inhale as I opened the bucket and it actually smells like beer! Not like wort!

Excitement has reached level 2.

Yesterday February 7th 2008 I started my first home brew using the brewing and wort kits that I received for Christmas.

There wasn’t much to it really. The part that took the longest was sterilizing everything so that the beer wouldn’t develope a nasty taste. That took about an hour. Partially cause I kept forgetting things that needed to be sterilized so I had to keep waiting an extra 20min for the sani-brew to do it’s bit over and over. Live and learn though.

Here’s some pictures of me sanitizing in the bathtub (which is also now germ and bacteria free as well):

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I didn’t get a lot of pictures (read: any) of actually combining the wort and the yeast in the primary fermenter because my photographer was acting as an assistant at the time. I’ve chosen a two step fermentation process as is recommended in How to Brew by John J. Palmer and by the instructions that came with the pre prepaired wort.

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Over night the beer fermented like crazy. The head has risen to about 5 inches. During this time I’m keeping the bucket out on a counter and covered in a blackout sheet. I decided to do this because it will need to be racked in to the carboy for secondary fermentation in a few days and it will be much easier to do from that height instead of trying to lift it up at the time (the bucket is a little flimsy).

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This fermentation should take 3 to 5 days.

My excitement is building!