Fermented Freedom

All home brewers remember their first brew.  From the boiling of the wort to cracking open your very first home brewed perfection.  Okay, okay, your first brew was probably not perfection but it was yours and definitely not some mass produced, watered down version of beer.  If you are anything like me, you purchased a kit and started in your kitchen with some extract and hops.  After the boil you ever so carefully placed your pot of dreams in your kitchen sink, bath tub, or plastic bin filled with ice water in a futile attempt to quickly cool the wort down to yeast pitching temperature.  The question remains, why did my first few batches turn out not as expected?  As a new brewer, it could be any one of a number of reasons, but more than likely it is some type of bacteria.  Think of it like this, you slave over your beer and in the process little communist bacteria sneak in and contaminate your wort stealing your dreams of fermented freedom. ...

I am a relatively new Home Brewer, only 3 Extract Brews, and have experienced varying degrees of success, or failure depending on your point of view.  My inconsistent, yet not undrinkable beer led me on a quest to discover what the differences were in my outcomes.  Allow me to share some of my journey and what I have learned along the way. I should probably begin with where I brew, as I believe this has played a huge role in my process.  I live and brew in south Mississippi.  Our 95 degree heat in the summer it provides another challenge in the process of fermenting.  I know what you are thinking, “Just put the fermenter in the cool basement and let it bubble away.”  That would be an excellent option if we lived in an area where basements were part of every house, but in our piece of the world, the water table is so high that any basement would quickly turn into a very unpleasant, aromatic mildew spa.  Much to the chagrin of my wife, my fermenter too...