My old buddy and myself brewed beer back in the early 70’s and it was a much different process. We would go to the grocery store and buy a 5 lb. can of malt extract and a 5 lb bag of sugar. We would boil about 2 gallons of water and throw those ingredients along with some hops (unknown name) that we purchased through the mail into the pot. After it cooled down enough we threw it into a 5 gallon ceramic crock along with enough water to make 5 gallons and pitched it with Fleishman’s bakers yeast, also bought at the grocery store, put a towel over it and let it ferment for maybe three weeks before bottling. We went through the same conditioning problems as today, trying to find a balance between bottling at the right time to avoid flat beer on one end of the spectrum and bottle rockets on the other. We eventually figured that it was best to let it go flat and add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to each bottle to condition it for the right amount of carbonation. And we sanitized nothing. Everything was washed clean and brought out for brewing/bottling as needed.
Well, it didn’t taste all that great to me but it would knock you on your behind.
And now we move forward in time, circa 2015. Feeling that I would like to get back into the brewing thing again, I asked for a beer making kit from my wife for Christmas. Fully expecting a Mr. Beer, I got the deluxe kit from Northern Brewer (thanks honey!) and have been doing much research as the process has improved greatly since that early time in my life. So my point after this long-winded post is that I’m enjoying the heck out of the brewing process. I got the Irish Red Ale kit and that is now sitting in bottles. I tried one last weekend after two weeks in the bottle and it needed more conditioning time so I’ll see what this weekend brings. I’ve also got the Cream Ale in the fermentor and an Extra Pale Ale on order.
I want to thank all the helpful folks in this forum that are ready, willing and able to answer questions that have helped guide me through the brewing process which has made it a lot more reassuring and fun at the same time. Looking forward to more brews in the future, perhaps all grain next?? I’ll raise my Irish Red this weekend to all of you who are so willing to help relative newbies like me get familiar with the art of brewing beer in the 21st century.
