Tomorrow's Challenge

Tomorrow is day 10 for the two experiments currently fermenting in my closet.  I am going to test the gravity of both to see if they are done, and bottle if so.

I am trying to think of the best way to get the beer out of the Glass jug, since it doesn't have a spigot.  I HATE siphons, but maybe the best way to get it done is to siphon the brew out into my extra fermenter (now repaired) and bottle from there.

This will open up THREE WHOLE FERMENTERS!!!!!!  I'm not quite sure how much I can do right away without actually tasting the two experiments left, so I will have a week or two to plan out the next phase of my master plan...Muahahahahahahahaha!

Not sure I want to wait that long to get going again, though.  I will be ironing out the kinks, but, most likely, I will start figuring out the mix of malts Muntons uses in the DME I've been using, and switch completely to all-grain brews.  What that means, for those unfamiliar with the lingo, is that the powdered malt extract I use will be replaced by actual malt, which is grains of barley that have been through a complicated germination and cooking process (malting), and milled.  This adds a few things.

First, it adds a little credibility and a personal touch.  While brewing with extract can produce great beers, and extract is a great way to save time or boost the fermentability of your beer, all-grain brews are closer to brewing from "scratch", and put one's signature on their beer.  The body, color, flavor, head, and pretty much everything else are all much more controllable.

Second, it adds time...more than an hour more time of sitting and waiting during a typical brewday as the starches from the grains convert to fermentable sugar in hot water.

Third, it adds endless possibilities.  There are like 4,404,496,287,194 different kinds of grain, and the combination of those grains builds the malt profile of the finished beer.  I have to see what combo is used in the DME so I can recreate it for the first few beers.

So I have a little research to do...better get started.