Berry Birthday Beer

My youngest sister Isabelle is turning 21 today! In honor of this fun occasion, AJ brewed her a birthday beer this winter. It's a brown ale with 40 ounces of organic raspberries thrown in during fermentation.

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Lou's Brew

AJ got to work this weekend brewing a special beer for Louisa's first birthday. It's an orange summer ale and smells delicious already!

Bottling the Beer

Moving the beer from its second-stage fermentation carboy into the bottling bucket where it mixes with more sugar, which will carbonate the beer once it's in the bottles.


AJ getting set up to fill the bottles, after spending a long time sterilizing them all and all the equipment. Note his homemade bottle drying rack to his right.


Filling the bottles.


Capping the bottles.


Capping was fun.


Now we wait three weeks for it to carbonate, then we enjoy! We ended up filling 29 12oz, 4 16oz, 4 22oz, and 1 500ml bottles... assuming none of them explode during carbonation...

Home Brewing

Breaking in the home brew ware with the Appalachian Brewing Supply Anchor Steam Clone last weekend.

Boiling water and steeping the grains.

Dissolving the malt.

Adding one set of the hops.


Quickly cooling the brew.


Pouring the brew into the first stage fermenting container.


Watching the temperature...

...and now we wait! (and drink beer to save the bottles!)