OnMilwaukee.com Bar Month officially ended last night at midnight, and to celebrate a fantastic month of alcohol-related articles, I brewed my first batch of beer. It also happened to be “leap day” so inadvertently I made a batch of “Leap Year Beer.” (In fact, I think a local brewery like Sprecher or Lakefront should brew a special “Leap Year Beer” every four years!)
In all honesty, I was more of a brewing apprentice to my husband, Jamie, who brewed beer about a decade ago with his then roommates and knows way more about it than I do. I did, however, name our home beer “Jamol’s” which is a combination of our names and was the name we (jokingly) told people we were naming our son while he was in utero.
A couple of weeks ago, we invested $100 in basic brewing equipment from the Purple Foot, 3167 S. 92 St. The Purple Foot is a friendly, family-owned business that I was happy to support, even though they are more winemaking experts than home brewers. Hence, for the next batch, I think we’ll take a family field trip to Brookfield’s Brew & Grow, 285 Janacek Rd.
Overall, our home brewing experience went well. We purchased a kit from Brewer’s Best to make a batch of “American Light.” It’s not a low-calorie beer, rather a light bodied, refreshing type brew. After reading the information, Jamie was slightly disappointed to find out that the beer is rice-based. “Great, we’re home brewing Budweiser,” he said. Luckily his enthusiasm rekindled once we started the process, which took about three hours.
First, we boiled four gallons of water on the stovetop, which took forever, and then added the malt extract (next time we are definitely going to make our own mash), the rice syrup and the bittering hops. We boiled all of that for about an hour, then added the finishing hops, boiled some more and then took the five-gallon vat of boiling brew outside and stuck it in a snow bank until it cooled to 70 degrees. (Finally, a reason to appreciate the snow!) Then, we siphoned the liquid into a plastic fermenter, took an original gravity reading to find out the alcohol content, added the yeast and said a little prayer before putting the lid on the fermenter.
In about a week, we’ll transfer the brew to a carboy, which is a glass five-gallon container with a stopper, and then, according to the instructions, wait about three weeks until bottling.
I think the instructions were a little dicey. We’re going to do more research and talk to more home brewers before the next batch, but it looks and smells like beer, which is a good sign. We might add fruit -- lime or strawberries -- once we transfer the beer.
Speaking of fruit, our home brewing system can be used for winemaking, too. I have grapes growing in my backyard and plan to have my own purple feet someday, but for now, I’m just hoping my first batch of home brew is drinkable.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
