Boring Beer Talk (or how to make the blue ribbon beer that Dave said was all wrong)

Kitsch / Haddon Sundblom/ Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company Advertisement

I am spending Sunday relaxing and doing the essentials need for my weird way of life. Since it is raining (again) and I don't want to mope around waiting for the summer, I figure that I would do something useful.

So today is brewing.  Now, unlike a lot of the hobbyists out there, I see beer as an end.  It is cooking to provide me with good beer at a cost that I can afford.  I don't brag of obsess on how I fry my eggs for breakfast.  It is just part of the deal of living within my means.  So today is recipe process for the mundane task of brewing beer.  It can't be rocket science if the Sumerians invented it.

Non Ingredient Equipment/reagents:

• 4-5 gallon pot from Walmart (approx $45 depending on how far into inflation you want to put off the purchase)
• Fancy Schmantzy lid with rubber overhang that lets you clip the strings of the hop bag so you don't lose them
  
• Mesh bag to hold grain in pot while brewing
• Silicone spoon for stirring
• Small balance 0.1 g accuracy (200 g limit)
  
• Bigger balance 1 g accuracy (5 kg limit)
  
• Long probe thermometer
  
• Three Gallon Plastic Carboy
• Three Scale Hygrometer
• 250 ml graduated cylinder
  
• Temp tape for side of carboy
• Airlock
• Rubber stopper to hold airlock
• Mesh colander that is sized for your boiling pot
• Stockpot that you use for pasta to heat the sparge water
• Two(2) small mesh bags for hops
• plastic garbage bag to dispose of the spent grains (I will write another piece later on drying and using spent grains in baking)
• Sink big enough to hold the brew pot and cold water
• Siphon starter and tubing for transfer
  

Ingredients:

• 3-1/2 pounds of crushed 2-row barley
• 1/2 pound of crushed Vienna malt
• 11 grams of hops for boil:  Falconers Flight 7CS Blend hop pellets (22 IBU)
  
• 11 grams of hops for Aroma:  Falconers Flight 7CS Blend hop pellets(8 IBU)
• 1/2 teaspoon Amylase Powder
• 1 teaspoon of Safale US-05 dry yeast
  

This sounds like a lot of shit, but truthfully it is pretty compact and I live in a 525 sq. ft. studio and I am not cramped.  This is it for today's writeup.  I will throw down more descriptions and discussions in the next couple of days.