Irish Red Tasting Day

Tomorrow is tasting day for Steve and Tim's Inaugural Brew. We have been waiting now for about 5 weeks for this day to see if the process has yielded success or not. The brew has fermented and been bottled and has been in boxes taped shut in case of explosions ( of which there were none!). Steve has, as I am writing this, placed 4 bottles in the refrigerator for tomorrow night's festivities and I hope to report tomorrow that the stuff is awesome. So far the process has gone very well with each step doing just what it was supposed to so all should be well.
Steve wants to make a Dopple Bock for our next attempt so we'll begin studying the process for that one now and on my next trip to Northern Brewer in St Paul I'll pick up the kit and any extra equipment we might need.
This is short post, I know, but it's late.
Tim

Bottling Day!

Today was bottling day for Steve Rudh's and my first batch of home brewed beer. You may have read a previous post about this adventure but if you didn't, we started on St Patrick's Day, about two weeks ago with a kit from Northern Brewer in St. Paul. We both like Irish Red so that is the kit we picked and boiled our wort that night using the basic brewing kit from the store. The folks there were very helpful in getting us started, suggesting some better upgrades to the basic kit and the right yeast to buy and how to transport it without killing it, etc. I called them the next week to get some advice on the next step and they walked me through it over the phone. Really good customer service and that is kind of rare these days, but I digress.
The next morning after brew day our fermenter was bubbling furiously as we had hoped and continued for several days, winding down to almost a stop by this week.
Tonight we cleaned and sanitized all our bottles and transferred the beer into the bottling bucket after testing the specific gravity. The boys at N.B. told me it should be 1.013 and we ended up at 1.010 so I think it is just right. We also tasted the sample from the hygrometer tube and it was very nice, even though at this point it is still "flat". We added the priming sugar and filled 48 bottles with a lovely amber liquid.
Now it is sitting in cases taped shut in case of any explosions and it will develop the carbonation over the next two to four weeks. I can't wait to taste one!
Here's to a good "soothing beverage"; more to come as we taste Steve and Tim's Inaugural Brew.
Tim