This ain't no MGD (Great Hope finale)

We have Beer!!! Really good beer!! Pictures are spotty here because my lovely and wonderful better half has my camera.........in Spain. (I had to steal my sister's old camera for this shoot.) No, no. That's o.k. Don't worry about me. All alone in S.F. with my beer. Anyone hear the violins yet? Hey, she's with her dad and I've got gig's and work piled up. Anyway.......


The Great Hope was a great success!! A smooth, firm bodied ale with just a hint of dustiness (don't know where the dust came from, wire hanger maybe?). Actually a little more character and floral aroma from room temperature bottles than from refrigerated ones. A good head, and a little more kick than commercially produced beers.


All in all a worthy effort. Not as consistent as say, Anchor Steam, but all the tasters (Uncle Willy, Mo, Myself, and "Free Beer?" Don) thoroughly enjoyed our few bottles. O.K. I had more than one. O.K. three, but we tasted at my apartment, so I didn't have to drive.

So are you curious about home brew? Are you like me and despise the mass produced corn based swill that comes out of the Major brewers in this country? Well almost every moderate sized grouping of citizens in this fair country has a home brewing outlet. Give it a try. As soon as you make more than one batch you get your initial investment in equipment back. Over the two brews we've cooked up so far I figure that the per bottle total is about $1.25. Every batch I make brings that total down, as all I purchase now are the ingredients, and maybe a few more empty bottles. Try to find any good quality beverage for that price. Heck, even water costs more per gallon (actually bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline). So give it a try. Ask your local brewshop for recipes to get you started. After you've made a few batches, then you can get deeper into the process and worry about "gravity" and such.


Batch #1 (Great Hope)
Brew Date: 2/26/06
Style: Pub Ale
Racked: 3/26/06
Alcohol %:
Batch Size: 5 gal.

Steep Time: 45 (min)
Temp: 155º F

Ingredients
Mash-Specialty Grains:
2 lbs. English
½ lbs. Aromatic
¼ lbs. Barley Flakes
6 lbs. Malt Extract

Boiling Hops (Bittering):
Min. oz. AAU
60 1 Challenger
30 1/2 E.K. Goldings

Finishing Hops (Aroma):
1/2 E.K. Goldings (last 15 min.)

Yeast: Windsor
Priming: ¾ cup dextrose in 1 cup H2O

Original Specific Gravity: 1.054
Final Specific Gravity: 1.017

Special Instructions: 6 days in Primary fermenter; 7 to 12 days in secondary fermenter; 14 days in bottle.