Julianne, my lovely fiancée, bought me the Ultimate Brewing Kit - Bottling for Christmas! Now I can brew my own beer, just like Wil Wheaton. Huzzah!
Her parents got me the Brewer's Best Witbeir ingredient kit, and today Julianne and I prepared the wort.
I think it went pretty well. I had trouble keeping the temperature in the right range during the steeping of the grains, but I'm taking Charlie Papazian's words to heart, and relaxing. The wort boiled nicely and smelled absolutely delicious!
We used a funnel, rather than a siphon, to get the wort into the primary fermenter. The lady at the brewing store said that this would help to aerate the wort, but it left me a little uncertain as to how much of the sediment to leave in the brewing pot.
After adding some fresh water to bring the wort up to five gallons, I took a sample to determine the specific gravity (SG). I think I need some practice in this department. We believe the reading was about 1.038 at 72.3 degrees. With the temperature adjustment, that brings the SG to 1.040. Unfortunately, the original gravity (OG) range for this beer is supposed to be between 1.045 and 1.049.
I'm a little concerned, but not too much. Perhaps we didn't get it stirred well enough, or we didn't read the hydrometer well enough... either way, it's probably alright. However, my fear is that we didn't pour enough of the sediment in. Oh well, all we can do is wait and see!
Relax, and have a homebrew, right Charlie?
