Batch #2 Post #1

Alright, for my second batch, I decided to make something a little less ambitious, an Amber Ale Again, I bought the kit for this from www.austinhomebrew.com.


Ingredients

Grains
1/2 lb. Crystal 60L

Malt Extract
7 lbs. Amber Extract

Hops
1 oz. Sladek (half for bitter, half for flavor)

Yeast
White Labs California Ale 001


The process was pretty much the same, and I used bottled jugs of water again. I used a different method of cooling though. In the episode of Good Eats on brewing, Alton Brown suggested to just buy a 7 lb bag of ice and pour the hot wort over it to cool it down. I did this, but I don't know how much I liked the process. It wasn't the exact amount you needed, and it also was hard to control. I think in the future I might freeze my own ice in a smaller quantity to put in the wort and still use an ice water bath so I have a little more control. I already brewed #3 so I think I will do it on #4.


Another thing I tried for the first time on this batch was to save the yeast. Yeast can be pretty expensive ($6.50-$7), and it's one of the areas that you can keep the costs down especially if you brew repeated batches of the same style. Basically after the primary fermentation winds down you can scoop some of the yeast off the bottom and put it in a sterilized jar and keep it up to about a year in your refrigerator. You've got to try and separate the yeast from the other stuff in there, but it's not too hard, you just need to shake it up, let the heavier particles settle on the bottom and the yeast on top, and then skim it off into another jar. You do it a couple of times and you should have mostly yeast left. I am planning on brewing with this yeast sometime over the summer (there's a few more things I want to try first).