Next up....my first Brew Day.

Okay- it actually started yesterday. Or even last weekend. You see, my sister-in-law got me a home brewer's beginner kit from Home Sweet HomeBrew (http://www.homesweethomebrew.com/). I picked it up this past Saturday (maybe Friday) and received some timely advice from the store owner. For instance, don't worry about the brewing "stench" - "you've cooked spaghetti before, right? What's the difference?" "Some prefer the aroma of brewing malt & hops", etc. Anyway, the gentleman seems to be a genuine nice guy who appears to sincerely want to help.

So anyway, he strongly advocated cleanliness. So that's what I did on my "real" first brewing day...I cleaned!!! And now my hands smell like household bleach.

I first made up a batch of sanitizing water out of household bleach and tap water and soaked & rinsed my fermenter, the racking tube, the siphons, the bottling tap, and all that other fun stuff. Then, since I live in Philly and have precautions about the tap water, I boiled three and a half gallons (or 13.26 liters) of water to sterilize and get rid of all possible germs and imperfections. I didn't want my first batch of beer to be ruined!!! Believing I could do this in just a morning or afternoon, I later found out that it would take me all morning as I had to read over and over what each piece of equipment actually was. For some reason, the "how to" guides didn't come with accompanying pictures so I was left going back-and-forth trying to figure out what was what. Needless to say, I threw mostly everything into what I had deemed the fermenter bucket, put some bleach in it, added cold tap water, and presto.

Upon finishing my sterilization chores, I was able to relax by sipping on some Victory HopDevil and perusing the New Yorker's article of extreme brewing (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_bilger) with a special focus on Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head (http://www.dogfish.com/). Wow- what inspiration this article turned out to be! And boy was I ready for my "real" first day of brewing.