In an effort to come up with some content for this blog, I’ve decided that every once in a while I’ll provide updates about my homebrew journey — aptly named “What’s Brewing?”

Since my first homebrew experience, I have acquired a 7 cubic foot chest freezer, and a temperature control unit to gain greater control over the fermentation temperature of my future brews. I was actually able to get this freezer at no cost, since my buddy’s parents had one they were looking to get rid of it — score! I purchased the control unity online through Northern Brewer.

As for what’s actually brewing, I’m fermenting a small batch of apple cider in the freezer at the moment and it’s looking really good. I’m about at the end of the two-week primary fermentation, where I’m going to rack to a second carboy for roughly two weeks, then I’ll back-sweeten before bottling.

The new fermenting chamber.

I’m a bit worried about bottle bombs, since I’m looking to make a sweet cider, but I’m going to keep a close eye on them and either pasteurize them or cold crash before they get too pressurized. Expect to see a post about this in the next month or so.

As for beer, I’m going to brew the White House Honey Ale recipe this weekend with my buddy, Dan, and we’re hoping to experiment a little bit with this one. It’s going to be Legen… wait for it… Dary! Legendary! (Thank you, Barney Stinson.)

Anyway, keep checking back, or subscribe to my blog for email updates when I create a new post.

Cheers!
Ian