Owen's X10 Blog

I finally got around to brewing a new batch of beer this past weekend. My Brew Buddy and I traveled out to the Beer Essentials Home Brewing Store in Lakewood Wa. It’s a really cool place to visit if you are at all interested in beer or home brewing. Every time I go I learn something new or see something else that will help me brew the perfect beer. Ok, so I’m not really after the perfect brew but I have to say it’s getting pretty good.

For a few batches now I have made a mild IPA with the added flavor of Cascade Hops. A few people that have tried it relate it to Sierra Nevada IPA, which is a very good beer so I’ve decided to make it until I’m sick of it. I usually end up giving about half a batch away to friends and family that have yet to try my beer. This time around my friend chose to make a Cerveza, or something along the lines of a Corona. He has been a lot more adventurous as far as trying new beers each time. Some have been very good; others could use a little work.

Everything went very smooth this time around. Between rounds of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out (yes we got stuck on king hippo) we stirred the brew and timed the hops. No boil-overs or nasty spills this time around. There is a point during brewing where the wort, or the beer mixture, starts bubbling madly and foams upwards toward the edge of the pot. This is often called the “hot break” point. If you aren’t careful you can easily find your entire stovetop covered with a sticky beer mess. This action doesn’t really hurt the beer itself, but beer at this stage is very hard to clean up. The sugar is yet to be turned to alcohol so anything spilled is sticky. We haven’t really had any of these problems, probably because of the endless warnings you receive from brewers.

After the beer is transferred into the primary fermentor it sits to begin the fermentation process. On the top of the fermentor bucket there is an airlock filled with water, which bubbles when the fermentation process has begun. The intensity varies each time beer is made. This time I had something unusual happen that I haven’t experienced before. My airlock had began bubbling sooner than usual. Twenty Four hours after the boil I checked on the batch. The airlock was still bubbling, but this time there was beer in the chamber that holds the water. “Eureka!” I exclaimed. Ok so not really, I’m sure I used a more descriptive word, but I was shocked nonetheless. I just wanted to see if you were still reading. So, I figured I could probably do more damage changing out the airlock so I decided to leave it in. We’ll have to see what this does to my final product. I have made a few mistakes in the past, but it hasn’t spoiled the taste yet.

I’m thinking about getting and Xcam for just such a situation. I’ll call it my fermentation cam. You see, the airlock should bubble for about 2 to 4 days in my experience. Once it has slowed to less than 5 bubbles a minute you know its time to transfer to your secondary fermentor. If I had an Xcam set up I could access the footage anywhere I could get on the internet. That way if I was visiting my parents and forgot to check the progress I could simply go online and take a peek.

Now if I could only find an X10 product to complete the bottling process for me.