Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Beer! (Take Two)

One of the truths of my life is that I haven't laughed at myself for doing something stupid I really haven't tried.

Today was a laugh at myself kind of day.

I opened up my fermenter after waiting a week expecting the magic of fermentation to have transformed the not so good looking green goo into beer (or at least something that remotely resembled beer).

I opened the bucket and it was still green and did not smell very good.
It was a pale green color and I couldn't bring myself to even try it. I poured it all down the drain. There goes my effort and my time waiting.
So I went back to the home brew store and when I walked in, it took me all of two seconds to realize what I did wrong. I had forgotten to add the main ingredient. For a bad comparison, imagine baking a cake and forgetting to put flour in. Yeah, my mistake was huge. It is no small wonder that it turned out so weird. My concoction was only hop pellets and the finishing sugar (which is intended to be used right before bottling to give the beer carbonation).

Needless to say I felt like a complete and utter idiot. Robert, who owns Reno Homebrewer didn't laugh and even gave me another ingredient kit for free. Check them out here: (http://www.renohomebrewer.com/). Great place and even better people.

So I came home and now with a new bigger pot and the knowledge of what to do, my beer turned out the right color and even smelled like beer this time.

I might just have drinkable beer by Thanksgiving. We shall see...