Jeff's Blog

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Thomas Hardy Ale

Today I brewed a REALLY strong beer. It will have 12% alcohol when it is done fermenting. It will probably take at least 2 monthes to be ready to drink. Since this is such a serious beer I thought I would detail it out on my blog.
Here I am steeping the grains in 150 degree water.

I strained, and sparged the grain to get this "Sweet Liqour" .

I brought that to a boil, and added Malt extract, and Hops. There was almost 17 lb of sugar in this wort.

I then cooled the wort in a large round cooler I have.

I added water, and checked my OG, original gravity. 1.124 is VERY high. Most beers would start at say 1.050. Where 1.000 is water.

Here you can see the yeast. It starts out flat, and you break the package inside, and the yeast start eating, and create gas which fills the package. As I say in my "Home Brew Quick Course" this helps you know you are pitching a live culture. a couple hours later I am pretty sure the beer is already creating CO2, and I predict this batch will hit a frenzied bubble in the air lock.