A Butter Brew

It is no secret to anyone that I like beer, craft beer in particular.  There is definitely a progression that is made when light beer drinkers expand their horizons to the endless awesomeness that is craft beer.  Most start with an amber (Fat Tire) or brown (Newcastle) and then progress on to more robust beers such as IPA's, Porters and Stouts.  Continuing on that progression, more and more people are taking it a step further and delving into homebrewing.  Minneapolis and St Paul are home to 3 homebrew shops alone, if that tells you anything...

Last February, Kati's brother James showed me the ropes of homebrewing as we brewed a Maibock.  I say we, but in reality he did most of the work.  I was primarily there watching and drinking.  I did learn a few things though.  After that initial batch I was hooked.  I just needed to get my own equipment so I could start brewing up batches of my own.

Luckily, James was an experienced brewer as was one of his friends, who we shall call Tickle**.  As with most hobbies, James and Tickle had a glut of extra equipment laying around that they graciously donated to Butter Brewing.  All I needed to get were a couple carboys, a recipe kit, and a few other odds and ends.

**Click the link if you don't know who Tickle is.

I wanted my first beer to be relatively easy and I wanted one that Kati would hopefully enjoy as well.  With those two criteria in mind I picked a raspberry red ale.  The brew process was pretty basic, no intensive hop additions, extra long boil times or anything really out of the ordinary.  I also thought the raspberry would be a nice beer to finish off summer with.  As it turned out I really didn't need to take Kati's beer preference into consideration since we found out she was pregnant with baby #2 as this beer was fermenting.

Below are some pictures of the brewing process.

Steeping the grains.

Grains steeped, yeast incubating, awaiting the boil

Tools of the trade.  Yes, drinking a homebrew while brewing is a requirement!

Adding malt extract.

Wort after the hops have been pitched.
 

 24 hours in primary.  Active fermentation has begun
.

After two weeks in primary fermenter, transfer to secondary.

The end result.

The first pour of Roadrash Raspberry Red Ale*

I was quite surprised with how well this beer turned out.  I liked it a lot and I plan on this being the first repeat beer I do.  I am planning on brewing it again in April to have ready for the beginning of summer.

Since the first brew I have done another 4 batches:

1. Granny Gear* (An aggressively hopped American Red ale based on Lakefront Brewing's Fixed Gear)
2. Burly Brown* (A roasted hoppy brown ale.  This is the first beer that I strayed from the recipe on sound advice from James)
3. Stout 52* (A bold stout named for the temperature on the day of bottling.  52 degrees on December 26th)
4. Scotch Ale (Unnamed and currently in secondary)

* All naming rights licensed from Kati Mousel

 I am not sure what style of beer I will brew next, but there are endless options and there are many styles I want to try out.

If you are ever around feel free to stop by for a sample or two.

Cheers!