Dan Conley

Hidden behind a cut, as it’s nearly all pictures.

From my first brew, an extract with specialty grains porter from Niagara Traditions:

Oddly enough, it looks as though the wort is boiling when the malt is in there, which means I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Oh, what a difference three weeks (and some Papazian reading) can do!

I then racked the porter to secondary and picked up an all-extract raspberry wheat kit. When I bottled, I was much happier with the porter, but we’ll see how things go after bottle conditioning.

In talking with some people from Homebrew Talk, I was told that a large cardboard box could help insulate the fermenters from heat and also serve as a light barrier. I realized that I still had a large cardboard box from last Halloween, and so Shouty the robot (also seen in certain YouTube videos — specifically part four and part six) was repurposed:

Two weeks after the wheat was brewed, and three after the porter, I suckered Elizabeth and an unsuspecting Shannon into helping me bottle:

I now have close to 10 gallons, in liter flip-tops and 12 ounce bottles, sitting in my basement. I’m going to taste a bottle a week for the first two weeks, and then start handing them out to friends and family after three weeks. Oh, and drinking some myself, of course!