More Beer

This time it's the Evil Monk recipe from the Culver City Home Brewing Supply Co.


Here's the spent grain. This time it's going into the compost but I'd like to make bread with it or something else. It smells too good to throw away.

By the way when I posted about the last batch of beer (my first) I called it Ramshackle IPA but actually it was the Inglewood IPA recipe from Culver City Home Brewing. It has become ever more delicious and I just have to give credit where it's due.

If you like good beer like I do you should try your hand at a home brew. It's a lot easier than I thought it would be. It's probably about break even in terms of cost but the quality of beer I got from my first attempt was very good in spite of my inexperience and an imperfect process.

First Brew - Ramshackle IPA

Well, it's finally, officially here: the first Ramshackle Home Brew. This weekend marked three weeks (the recommended time you're supposed to wait) since I bottled the beer with our friend Andrew. I've been drinking it for a week and it's been good though I have noticed a slight change for the better over the course of the additional week.

Jeremy from Rancho Garvanza was asking for tasting notes in the comments on that post so here it goes with a caveat: Since Julia's gone gluten free she doesn't drink anything but sorghum beer. We haven't had any other beer drinkers over to taste it with me either so it may just be the blind pride of creation but I think it's good - something like a Lagunitas IPA maybe? Not as hoppy as Stone IPA but still a nice hops finish.

It's just slightly sweeter than I would normally like which may be a result of some of the hops boiling over the edge of the pot when I added them. I want to get another batch going as soon as I can but it looks like it will be at least next weekend before that happens. I think I'll either try another IPA or a Lager (actually probably both) since those are the beers I drink most often but I'd love to try get a Porter something like my favorite Black Butte brewing.

Bottling the Beer

Last weekend I finally got around to bottling the beer that was racked almost a month ago. Our friend Andrew who was out from NYC lent a hand (thanks Andrew!). The picture above shows the bottles coming out of the dishwasher. They really have to be clean going in, the dishwasher just sanitizes them.


Here we are siphoning from the carboy to the bucket. A little sugar was added here for bottle conditioning. The little remaining yeast will eat the sugar, add a little alcohol and carbonate the beer naturally over the next three weeks.


Here I am filling one of the last bottles. I used Stone IPA and Pale Ale bottles because I like the beer and the labels are painted on so I can run them in the dishwasher without removing any paper from the bottles first. Later I may get some enamel paint and paint over them but for now these will do.

Here is the final batch- 46 bottles of beer. there was more waste and evaporation than I expected. I hope to get closer to 50 or 55 next time but maybe this is a normal batch?

Here are my lessons learned for next time:

1. Get a bigger pot to boil the wort. I tried to use a large pot that we already had but I need the full 20 quarts to ensure that the wort doesn't boil over next time. The wort is extremely messy to clean up; it's super sticky and a little smelly. The bigger problem with the boil over though is that some of the hops float out with the overflow. This will make my beer much less bitter than the recipe intends.
2. Build a cooling system to drop the temperature of the wort more quickly once the hops schedule is done. I think I remember a DIY tube set up on Homegrown Evolution's blog. I'll check there and build or buy something for next time. The beer gets a little cloudy otherwise. Not a big deal but still I'd rather have a nice clear beer if I can.