January 25, 2006
Beer - The Official Pastime of Portland
The power is back on, in time to chill down the first of the homebrew jointly made by me and my dad! We brewed on Dec. 28, bottled on Jan. 11, and today was the day to open up the first reward of our efforts. It's an amber ale, and still has a young aroma of hops to it, but it should gain a more mature flavor over the next 2-3 weeks.
The Pearl was home to Weinhard's (now the uber-trendy Brewery Blocks area) until 1999, but BridgePort still brews in the Northern section of the Pearl. It's always a pleasure to smell the fresh brew when I'm driving through that area on my way home. The BridgePort brewpub near the brewery is supposed to open sometime in late February.
My dad and I brewed at my parents' house in Hillsboro, as there is nowhere near enough room for a brew operation in my condo. After doing the initial brew and letting it ferment for two weeks, here are some pictures of the siphoning and bottling process:
Checking out the clean bottles while Dad siphons the brew from the carboy to the bucket
Filling the bottles using the bottle-filler siphon attachment
Capping the bottles (this was fun!)
At long last, the finished product. Cheers!