Roll out the Bottle: Another Batch of Home-Brewed Beer in the Books (Or Fridge)

Knowing that I'm a fan of pretty much any kind of beer, a few years ago for my birthday, my wife bought me a really cool home beer-brewing kit. It included just about everything you need to brew up a case or two of your favorite fermented malt beverage, right there in your own kitchen. And this past weekend, we finally popped the top on the first bottle of our latest batch: an extra pale ale.

Seeing as we're still pretty new at home-brewing, we use brewing kits that are specially designed to be similar to several well-known beers we like. We've previously brewed both a brown ale and a west coast imperial pale ale. So far, though, this latest batch-- which is similar to Summit Brewery's EPA-- seems to be our best yet.

The thing about brewing your own beer, though, is that it takes time. If you're looking for instant gratification, this isn't the hobby for you. We started the process on this batch back on January 10th. The wort, as it's called when it's still being brewed, spent about two weeks in the primary fermenter. Then, we transferred it to the secondary fermenter, where it spent another couple of weeks. Finally, we bottled our latest concoction two weeks ago, and were able to try it last Sunday.

While this batch might need another week or so to build up a little more carbonation, it's still tastes pretty good, and fairly similar to Summit's EPA (of which I'm a big fan).  And, it's kind of cool to know that, as you're enjoying a lovely glass at the end of hard day, that YOU actually brewed it!