First Kilted homebrew session.

[Matthew J. Greene]

The Mead was approximately 2 lbs of honey dissolved in 1 gallon of water. The water and honey was held at 150 to 170 degrees F for ten minutes or so to pasteurize it. Once the mixture was cool enough Rygar pitched a partial package of rehydrated Nottingham Ale yeast. The whole process took about half an hour to forty minutes.

[Matthew J. Greene]

Rygar's internet has been nonexistent for more than a few days. I will take the liberty of showing the pics from our bottling and subsequent brewing session.

I made the trip down to Rygar’s home on Saturday afternoon. Our plans were to bottle the last batch and possibly brew another batch. I arrived a little later than anticipated. So we decided to bottle that night, and then brew the next day.

I’ll explain in a little bit more detail for those that don’t know how to homebrew (might interest you enough to give it a try). First we sanitized our bottling bucket, siphon starter, bottles, and bottling wand. We then boiled a little over 48 bottle caps to sanitize them. We then boiled 2 cups of water and ¾ cup of corn sugar. The corn sugar is used to “prime” the beer. Corn sugar ferments almost completely with no flavor. We mix this into the bottling bucket full of beer. This gives the remaining yeast something to eat. The CO2 given off carbonates the sealed bottle. This is called “bottle conditioning”. If you have ever had a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, you will know what I mean. They bottle condition their Pale Ale this way. It leaves a light sediment of yeast on the bottom of the bottle.

Well, enough explanation! On with the pics:

This is me siphoning the beer into the bottling bucket


This me filling the first case of bottles


This is Rygar filling the second case of bottles.


This is friend Steve capping some bottles with the bottle capper.

[Matthew J. Greene]

This is a clear (Corona) bottle that we filled. I like to see the beer as it clears and ages. As you can see the beer came out very clear from the fermenter (not usually the case).


Now the beer has to sit in the bottle for at least a week for the yeast to do its work. At the end of the week the yeast should have settled onto the bottom of the bottle. We will open up a bottle to check the carbonation level. If it is lightly carbonated we will age it another week.


Well, on to the next days brew session.

Here I am kilted and holding up a glass of beer. I am in ultra casual kilt mode (waiting on my kilt belt and sporran strap from Cavscout). In front of me is the new burner I purchased for brewing. I must say this burner worked GREAT! (Rygar's toolbox exploded )


Here I am taking the grain bag out of the 170 degree water. I have the funny look on my face because I am yelling “hot”. (Note – these are the grains that I forgot last time)


Here I am adding the malt extract.

[Matthew J. Greene]

Here is a picture of Rygar and I. “The Kilted Brewing Duo”


While there we tried a homebrewed Cream Ale. A friend in Toledo and I made this several weeks ago. It has been in the bottle for two weeks. It turned out great. I will definitely make that recipe again. Here is a picture I took after I arrived back in Toledo. The picture looks like the beer is orange or red. It is actually a darker yellow with an orange hue to it.


Those of you in Great Britain may recognize the Samuel Smith logo on the pint glass.