Sixth brew...Eureka!

After reading Papazian's book I had a much greater appreciation for what I needed to do, and a killer recipe for his Silver Dollar Porter.  I went back to Vegas Home Brew (www.vegashomebrew.com) and bought my ingredients.  I also decided to increase my brewing capacity to two gallons.  So I picked up another one gallon jug, an airlock and some hose.  It was only April, so it was still cool enough in the garage to ferment out there, as the temperature hovered in the high 60s, low 70s.

Fermenting Porter

 

I lost quite a bit of wort in the fermenters as you can see how much ended up in the cups in the video and how low the wort is in the jugs.  I made the mistake of adding water to make up the difference, which diluted the result down to 3.4% ABV.  But at least I knew where the problem lie this time.  Still, I came up with a good tasting brew and something I knew I could build upon.

 

I took a bottle back to Vegas Home Brew and shared it all around.  They told me about the local home brew club SNAFU (www.snafubrew.com).  If I joined, I'd get a nice discount from Vegas Home Brew on my future purchases.  So I went to their next meeting in May, and I joined up.  I expected maybe 10 people to be there at www.acesandales.com, where they meet.  The beer menu is mind boggling there - 30 taps, 88 different brews in bottles from all over the world.

 

The side room was packed with about 50 people and the pool tables were covered with brews and equipment that was going to be raffled off at the meeting:

 

I won 4 bottles of great brews, joined up, and ordered one of their new T-shirts.  After the raffle, people passed around their home brews for discussion.  Good thing they have a breathalyzer in the bar.