Most of my acquaintances with the exception of a select few are drinkers. Nearly all of them will offer you a beer upon arrival at their home. The same happens when they arrive at my home. It’s an acceptable practice in hospitality.
Recently a few of our friends started brewing their own beer. It started with just one guy and his turkey fryer in the middle of his deck. We were invited to the ‘brewing party’, which was great fun, and that is all it took to catch the bug. We were hooked on the idea of brewing our own beer.
Another mutual acquaintance has quietly announced that they are going to try to open up a brewery and cigar bar in the area. I was ecstatic! Ok, so was my spouse, Jim. He’s a cigar aficionado and enjoys a good craft brew to go along with his cigar. I also think it would bring a bit of a new cultural influence into our community. I would love to get on board with the business as a marketing and design resource for them, but we shall have to see about that.
I know of at least one other couple in the area that are very interested in starting their own home brewing operation as well. So the question is, “What’s Brewing in Crawfordsville?” Why all the sudden interest in craft brewing? Is it some sort of natural phenomena that inspires all these people at once?
A week ago a group of us all went up to Great Fermentations on Indy’s North East side to see about picking up some home brewing equipment. Several options were available and my husband was quick to bite on the deluxe brewing package. The deal was struck and a do-it-yourself kit for Jim’s first Honey Wheat beer was also purchased.
The large containers barely fit into the back of my Dodge Magnum. Eventually we shuffled the packages around and got them all arranged so they would make the 80-mile journey back home without breaking. We must have done a splendid job of shoving it all into the back of the wagon because it all arrived home without incident. My husband toted the lot into our living room where it stacked against one wall for the better part of the week.
My husband is very detail oriented. He immediately got out the ‘learn to brew’ book and read it non-stop during all available free time this last week. On Saturday, the Brewing began. We borrowed the previously mentioned turkey fryer and set it up on our own back deck. All the pieces and equipment were sterilized with iodine or by boiling and so we started to boil all of the mysterious ingredients.
The ‘grain tea’ was made. To this we added the first hopping. The boil was again induced with a ‘break’ and then the second hopping was achieved and then further boiling. We then had to cool our ‘wort’ with a homemade chiller formed of copper tubing that was attached to a garden hose. After a cooling period the yeast was introduced. This is what will make the beer alcoholic. Alcohol is a byproduct of fermentation, which is good for us, the drinkers!
We then transferred the wort to a carboil for it to ferment. An airlock was attached to the top of this giant glass jar that allows built up gas to leave, but no foreign air to enter. We waited for an anxious 10 hours to see if the fermentation was going to be a success. Ok, we really just went to bed. In the early morning light we rushed out to see if the beer had started brewing and to our delight a foamy layer had formed on the top of the beer and the airlock showed bubbles percolating. We had achieved brewing success! We will have to see what the next 2 weeks brings us as our beer finishes its jar fermentation. We then have to transfer it to bottles for the ‘bottle conditioning’. I can only hope that eventually, we will save enough on beer to offset the cost of the equipment.
