The First Batch - Where To Begin?

I began my beer-making venture yesterday. I chose to jump in and do a really "girly" beer. (I am a girl after all.) I also decided on a name for the beer label under which all my soon-to-be-famous beers will reside. I named my beer label "House of Brews". My first beer will be a pale ale beer with a fruity concoction of blueberries and honey. It's name is "A Taste of the Blues". I'm sure I'll be designing my label soon, but first things first. The beer.

Since this is my first official batch, I'm following the directions from my "Mr. Beer" home brewing kit. This is the same kit that I bought for my brothers and husband that ignited this new found passion. I found a recipe that I'm adapting. This seems like a very easy way to jump into home brewing with very limited knowledge of the brewing techniques. Okay, with absolutely NO KNOWLEDGE of brewing whatsoever. My husband has already made his first batch (that he will be debuting this weekend at the Beer Fest) and it tasted pretty good (as beers go). I wanted to do this totally without help from him, so I proceeded while he was at work. It happened to be a snow-day here in Nashville yesterday, so I think the beer-brewing gods are on my side.

I opened the instructions. Placed all my beer making essentials nearby and began. The directions seemed very straight forward. I quickly read through them. I think a 5 year old could do this. What's the big dang deal?

Step 1: Sanitizing. Evidently this is an extremely important step in the beer making process. (So far, so good. No trip up yet.) It said that I "MUST SANITIZE ALL EQUIPMENT THAT COMES IN CONTACT WITH MY BEER". Yep, it said it just like that. In all caps and underlined. So this must be super extremely important. It went on to explain how to do the sanitizing with the included sanitizing powder. It went so far as to explain that I should do part of these steps over my sink so I wouldn't make a mess. How thoughtful. Being the perfectionist and overachiever that I am, I love very detailed instructions. I don't like there to be any question about methodology, to ensure a perfect outcome. So far, I'm under the impression a woman must have written these instructions.

The recipe I'm using calls for using a blender to puree my fruit, so the directions reminded me to also sanitize the blender before using. Again, who would think of this other than a woman? I'm just sayin'.

So, once everything is sterile enough for a surgeon, it's on to step 2.

Step 2: Brewing. Okay, now we're getting into the fun part. This is the part that evidently brings in to play the creative juices (pun intended) of the brew-master. Since my husband had already done a 'base brew' - meaning he did the recipe straight from the box with no variations - I already knew I had to add my own flair for my first brew. Well, I added someone else's flair to my first brew because I'm using a recipe I found online. Being this is my first brew, and I have no idea what I'm doing, I decided it would be best to try a recipe that someone created. Next time though...

I measured my ingredients with the sanitized utensils. This is the part where you add the booster that came prepackaged with the kit. The package of the booster says it boosts the alcohol and body to the beer. I'm all for that! (Is there enough of this stuff?) This mixture is called the wort. Now who came up with that name, I wonder? Wort. It evokes visions of that hideous growth on the end of a witches nose. I'm told that it's actually pronounced like wert. I feel better about that. After mixing in my deviation from the basic recipe (my blueberries and honey), I added my ingredients into the cute little plastic keg that came with the kit. This specific kit makes 2 gallons of homemade brew. I think that's a respectable amount of beer for an amateur beermeister. I placed my keg in my dining room out of direct sunlight as directed. Now we wait. It has to sit a MINIMUM OF 7 DAYS. (Again, the directions had this all caps and underlined.)

So...what shall I do while I wait? Life goes on I presume. I need to start my real research now and start planning for my next batch. I went online and subscribed to a magazine today..."Brew Your Own". Gotta get up to speed on my new hobby.

I think I'll start designing my label.