if at first you don't succeed?

Tonight I made my first attempt at brewing some beer. It was from a Brewer's Best English Brown Ale kit. I have read and read and read until I was sick of reading just trying to get the process of brewing engrained (no pun intended) in my head, so that when the time came to do it, I could do it without having to think about it.

I had a perfectly good kit, that if I followed directions, should produce a good beer. But me, being me, that wasn't good enough. This is my first run, yet I had to play with it. I decided I wanted a nut brown, but was unable to find a nut brown kit at the homebrew supplier.

I decided to add some roasted pecans to get a nutty flavor and some crushed chocolate-flavored coffee beans (to add to the complexity of flavors) to the steeping bag. This could either be really good or introduce oils and tannins that will not work with the beer. We'll find out in a month or so.

Out of all the reading I've done, if there is *one* thing I've learned, it is clean, clean, clean. Then, when you think you have cleaned everything, clean some more. I spent an hour and a half cleaning and sanitizing, not just the equipment but countertops, stove top, and the deep freeze, next to the oven.

Upon finishing the sanitizing process, I put 2 1/2 gallons water (as per directions) in my brewpot and brought it up to 160* F.  I put all my grains, coffee beans, and nuts in the steeping bag and boiled for 20 minutes.

About 10 minutes into the process, I already am questioning this decision. The smell of coffee is ... overwhelming. Okay, I'm worried that I just brewed a $30 batch of carbonated coffee.

Then I removed the bag and added the dry malt extract, the liquid malt extract (which was thicker than molasses), and the first round of hops, called the bittering hops. This needed to boil for 45 minutes. Luckily, the coffee smell had subsided by now, and some confidence is coming back.

The second thing I have taken from my reading is that you really want to avoid boilover. I stood at the oven and watched to make sure it didn't.

Stir, Stir, Stir, Stir. Monotonous! yet, it's certainly a labor of love.

After the 45 minutes was up, things would happen much quicker. The next round of hops, called the flavoring hops, were added and boiled for 10 minutes. Then the last round of hops, called the aroma hops, were added  and would  boil for another 5 minutes.

Then, you remove the wort (that's what the beer is called at this point) and put it in an ice bath to bring the temperature down to the temperature of the yeast that will be used to ferment it. I have read this typically can take about an hour without a wort chiller (which I don't yet have).

I filled a plastic tub with ice, put the brewpot in it, and kept stirring the wort. I figured if I took it outside it would cool quicker since it was about 30* outside, so that is what I did.

Within 20 minutes (TWENTY!) it had cooled close to what the yeast require. I called a buddy of mine whom has brewed before and asked him if I had done something wrong or something right. He seemed to think I was okay.

I spent about 30 minutes trying to catch up and chat with him, all the while my wort is getting cooler and cooler in that ice bath. When I got off the phone I checked the temperature again,  only to find that it was down to 60*F. Uh-oh! I needed it to be 70*. DOH!

I brought it back inside and let it come up to room temperature. This took .... forever! I actually passed out on the couch waiting.

Upon awakening, however, the wort was room temperature and I was able to "rack" the beer into the carboy that it would ferment in. Once the beer was added, I added the yeast and enough water to bring it to 5 gallons and shook the hell out of it. All that remained now, was to put on the airlock and hope it ferments over the next couple weeks.

Now, it's just wait, wait, wait, and hope, hope, hope that I didn't fuck it up! That's what I am doing.