Guest Post, Starring Nick!

Just in time, as I'm running out of words near the end of this NaBloPoMo, we have a guest post from my one and only husband! Take it away, Nick!

Hi Everyone! Blogging's not really my thing but making beer is my latest hobby and what a gratifying hobby it is! When I started homebrewing, I wanted to see step by steps with pictures, as many food blogs do these days. But unfortunately I never had luck finding one. Here's to all the folks wanting to see a true step by step of how home brew is made!

Today's recipe: Nick's One Hoppin' ESB (Extra Special Bitter)

First, get all of your ingredients ready. Here's what you need:

8 lbs. Mountmellick Unhopped Light Malt Extract

1 lb. Crystal Malt (Munton’s)

1 lb. Amber Malt

3.5 oz. Perle hop pellets

1 pkg. Dry Ale Yeast (Safale S-04)

1 lb. Demerara Sugar

5 oz. Corn Sugar (Dextrose)

Lightly crack open both whole grain malts between sheets of wax paper or in a large plastic ziplock bag with a rolling pin. Do NOT over crush, you do not want dust, just coarse grind. Or save yourself all the trouble and just ask your homebrew store to mill them for you when you buy them.

Put lightly cracked grains in nylon steeping bag and tie in a knot.

Put bag in 5 gallon pot and fill ¾ full with COLD water. Bring temperature between 150 and 160 degrees and let steep for about 30 mins. Watch your “tea” come to a full boil. Fresh cracked malt "tea" smells delicious!

Remove tea bag right before full boil. Do NOT wring the bag out into the brew kettle! Bring “grain tea” to full boil.

Heat unopened cans of malt extract under hot water or in oven (200 degrees for 15 mins) to make extract easier to remove. Don’t forget your oven mitts – cans will be hot!

Remove kettle from heat and pour in malt extract, dissolve completely before turning heat back on. Bring back to boil.

Mmmmmm, smells like honey nut cheerios now!

Add 1.5 oz. hops and boil for 45 mins. This round of hops will bitter your beer. Wow it smells amazing!

Add 1 lb Demerara Sugar and boil for 15 more minutes.

Add 1.5 oz. hops and turn off heat. Stir vigorously for 3 minutes, cover, and allow to stand for 15 minutes. You now have what we home brewers call wort. (prn. Wert)

Allow wort to cool to 75 degrees F and transfer to glass carboy or plastic fermenting pail (all sanitized properly before this) using a sanitized saucepan and dumping into a strainer that sits in a funnel. I prefer the glass fermentation because it’s much easier to clean.

Top off to five gallons with cold water (preferably pre-boiled, sealed or bottled water). I’m using tap because our water isn’t that bad here in Philly.

Once at 80 degrees or less, take first reading of gravity using hydrometer.

2. Rehydrate yeast packet according to instructions if any. Add yeast and aerate well by shaking the carboy around. I’ve also used the other kinds of liquid yeast available. They all work well!

1. Attach hose and plug in carboy with other end in large bucket of water or cup of water so krausen can drain into it while still maintaining a closed seal to airborne bacteria. Mine nearly overflowed and I used a large pitcher, so be careful! It can build up to a surprisingly large amount. Removing the krausen will improve the flavor of your beer because it will not fall back into it.

The Krausen in full action... you can even see the bitter foam exiting out through the hose in this picture. The brown resin in the top of the glass carboy are called fusel oils. They are produced by hops and taste very bitter. If left in the beer, it won't hurt it, but can potentially give your final product a "bite".

After 3-5 days, the krausen will be gone. Mine took only 3 full days. Rack (transfer) beer to secondary fermenter if you’d like using a tube and racking cane. Recommended for better flavor and sanitation precautions.

See how the hop resin sticks to the glass? This stuff comes off much easier with NO STAIN when you use glass instead of plastic. Bleach and water are it's enemies... and your best friend when home brewing.

This is just under 5 gallons of beer! That equals about 48 12-ounce bottles. But it's not ready for drinking yet! Still more steps to do...

Add .5 oz. hop pellets to the nearly finished beer. This is known as dry hopping.

Measure gravity every day until hydrometer reads the same two days consecutively. Sometimes it takes only a few days, others, a week and a few days.

How do you get the sample out of the carboy? I sanitize a tool called a wine thief which is a glorified turkey baster to pull out the liquid and empty into a graduated cylinder which is not shown.

Now that the final gravity is recorded, you are ready for bottling! Prime with ½ to ¾ cup dextrose (corn sugar). Do this by taking a pint glass of boiling water, dissolve dextrose in it, let cool and add to what I call the transfer carboy once it's at room temperature.

I really only use the plastic carboy to use as a holding container for the dry hopped beer/priming sugar solution. Adding the priming sugar is what gives your beer bubbly goodness, aka carbonation.

Do your best to NOT disturb the solution in both the secondary fermenter (shown in picture) and in the plastic transfer carboy. Use the racking equipment to get only the liquid out of the glass carboy. Once in the plastic carboy, stir in the sugar solution lightly, then bottle your beer using siphon and tubing.

Here's where you cap the filled bottles. Make sure to boil the bottle caps for 5 minutes and let them come to room temperature also before you cap everything. Remember, SANITATION = NO RUINED BATCHES OF BEER. Once capped, store bottles for 10 days at room temperature.

After 10 days, they should be ready for drinking. However, home brew ages beautifully and if you try them over the course of a few months, you'll notice how bitterness mellows into excellent drinkability.

ENJOY YOUR HOMEBREW!