If you remember back to an earlier post, I tried my hand at making some beer.  Last night was the moment of truth, and although I had convinced myself that something was wrong and I would be drinking flat yuckwater, things turned out much better than expected!

Rewind 2 weeks back to bottling day.  Good lesson learned: I have no idea how to effectively siphon things.  Good thing super brew assistant Suzy was in town visiting to lend extra hands and brainpower.  We got it done, but it certainly wasn't pretty.

(yes, I'm sweating)

This looks easy, right?

Bottled!

I had to take a taste.  It tasted like beer.  I was hopeful.

Once everything was in the bottles, we had to wait another 2 weeks for it to carbonate itself.  I had checked on the bottles a few times and they just looked flat to me, so my hopes were somewhat dampened as to the success of my first batch o'beer.  Last night was the big reveal, and after a short car ride to casa de Nixon, I noticed that the bottles looked a little bubbly - good!  I held my breath when I opened the first bottle and heard the relieving pop! of a carbonated adult beverage.  After a very foamy first pour, this is what we were working with:

Looks like beer, eh?

Cheers.

The verdict?  Not half bad!  The mix was for an IPA, but it ended up tasting like a hoppier than normal wheat beer.  Certainly drinkable, and a pretty rewarding experience.  I had already decided to step up to a 5 gallon brewing operation, and brew day is today for some Chocolate Maple Porter.  Stay tuned for an update on round two...

Update!  Round Two: