Economy Size Geek

We started the brewing process of the beer for our wedding on Sunday. We managed to get everything done in the 3 hours it didn’t rain.

This was the largest batch of beer we’ve ever made - it was 10 gallons of Hefeweizen. It will end of getting modified later to transform it into the sublime Sip O’ Honey ™. But for now it is a gurgling mess in our bathtub.

Everything went incredibly smoothly, with one small exception. I recently aquired a Better Bottle carboy. I was excited because it seems like it would be an ideal primary fermenter for us. Especially since it makes raking to the secondard so easy. There is just one small problem. The universal bung (Yes I said bung) doesn’t fit. Of course I didn’t realize this until it was time to put the air lock on it.

Actually it got a little worse than that. This Hefe really likes to foam up. This isn’t a bad thing as long as you have a blow off tube ready. Apparently our last one got so crummy we threw it out figuring I would buy some more before we got around to brewing. So now I had to rigged up the air lock to a small 1/2″ tube. Which means if the blow off clogs there is a risk that the whole glass carboy could explode! (Assuming the universal bung doesn’t blow out first - which has happened before so I’m not ultra worried).

Since we did the brew day on Sunday the home brew store was closed and I figured it wouldn’t be that bad. Normally you get a 12-24 hour lag before things really get going. That didn’t happen this time because I actually took the time to make a yeast starter. So it started fermenting in 6 hours - which means if you go into the guest bathroom - all you can smell is beer.

The glass carboy is happily expiring (I had to shut door to get some sleep since it was actually that loud). The Better Bottle is mostly just leaking around the rigged up top. Hopefully today we’ll get it all sort out and it won’t be too worse for the wear.

The craziest part is that I already have to get ready for another batch since this weekend I have to do the second round. We’re planning 20 gallons for the big day.

And before you worry - I checked - a family can produce 200 gal/year for personal consumption. So we still have a lot of room left for the year - which is a good thing because once this is finished I’m going to start working on a Flemish Red - ala Rodenbach.