As I stood there in the heart of the Electric Ladyland Brewery (aka R__’s kitchen) and watched the wort boil over I knew it was my fault. Wasn’t it my hand that dropped the hops into the pot just a few seconds before? I turned away and turned back to see all this liquid and stuff (you know the STUFF that is in wort) end up on the stove. I have this magical ability to ruin things that have to be made in a kitchen just by being in the kitchen, and in this case I actually took part in the brewing process. Double whammy. Of course the master brewer (aka R__) and her competent assistant (aka M__) said it was because the pot was too small, and the master brewer said she needed to update the equipment (buy a kettle from the brewing place, as you can see I am a very technical person). Still part of me still believes it was my malevolent-non-cooking aura that did it. Kitchens and me don’t get along. I should stick to making catnip socks for the in-house entertainment (resident furry citizen).
So how did I become part of this marvelous brewing crew at the excellent Electric Ladyland Brewery? The master brewer invited me to join the festivities and it was fun. After being a part of it I understand why brew brewing is best done with more than one person. And after all there were only two minor mishaps, one of which I captured on video, (the master brewer forbade from posting it, you can clearly hear on the video “THE HELL YOU ARE POSTING THIS ON YOU-TUBE”, though so it is not here). The other two videos I took of the brewing process are at the end of this post.
Besides being the competent assistant, and the only other person beside the Master Brewer with brewing experience, M__ was the assigned documenter of the day. Put in simple turns, she photographed the steps as we did them. I took a few, hopefully I will get the titles right, but here goes anyway.
I believe this is as R__ was pouring in the liquid malt, this is done when the water boils, it takes a while because it is very thick and so comes out of the bottle slowly. After this a powder is put in, I don’t remember what this powder is called, but its pictured in the second video. It all comes in a kit, everything is pre-measured and labeled, the only thing we had to measure was the water, and time the cooking process. One must also have the proper equipment, and one needs a kitchen. I don’t have a kitchen, I also don’t have the desire to brew beer. I had a lot of fun helping but it’s not something that I yearn to do.
Then after the hops are added and boiled for the correct time period, the whole pot was put in the sink with ice to cool it. When got to the correct temp it is then poured into a big jug, water is added and then the white stopper goes in and the big jug gets rocked around to aerate the liquid. Then the yeast is poured in. I’m told this is how it is supposed to look like. Then it sits, I don’t know if it is still called wort, but the yeast gets eaten up and the water bubbles in the clear thing above the stopper. R__ said she would video it, so it will almost be like I’m there.
It smelled though, I turned to R__ and started to say, “It smells …” and she replied “Yes doesn’t it smell good?” I didn’t agree so I just shut my mouth. After a while I either got used to it or it got less intense, but that is another reason I will probably not open a “Princessa Brewery” in the Upper East Side.
The brew was a brown Ale with the clever name: Caribou Slobber. And I know you all want to know, did I ruin the beer? R__ doesn’t think so, we will know in two weeks. In the meantime I have “Hemingway IPA” a black coffee IPA from Electric Ladyland brewery to try. Cheers.
Belleza
just a (transplanted) city girl 