A little about the name and purpose of this blog

I'll be honest. The name of this blog isn't all that great. All of the clever names I came up with for a home brewing blog, which are probably about as clever as "that's what she said", were taken. Desperate for something other than a random string of letters I came up with Four Hour Habit. In my very limited experience with brewing the entire process from the first thing sanitized till the last thing cleaned after actually brewing takes about four hours. Of course four hours doesn't include the weeks of waiting for the beer, cider, toxic waste, to be ready to sample. Up until this point I haven't done all grain brewing yet which, hopefully, doesn't add much time. Any time I introduce a new brewing term I will have a glossary for my non-brewing family, friends, and (hopefully) other readers. Posts with glossary entries will be tagged with "glossary" at the bottom so if you don't understand something search this blog for "glossary".

Until recently I was brewing with a friend at his place. The schedule at my awesome job changed and it has proven to be very difficult to get together at the same time to brew for weeks. So, yesterday I went out and got a kit, plus a few extras, for myself. Hopefully this, the brewing and maybe the blog, turn into something bigger. After all, brewing takes about four hours out of one day followed by weeks of waiting.

Today was brew day numero uno.

Apfelwein
This will be bottled in six weeks and carbonated.

Five gallons of White House Apple Juice
Two pounds of dextrose
One packet of Red Star Montrachet yeast
1/2 teaspoon of yeast nutrient

Wassail
This will be bottled in about two and a half months and will not be carbonated.

One gallon of Musselmans Apple Juice
Two cloves
Zest from one fresh orange
Two cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon of dried ginger root
1/2 teaspoon of pectic enzyme
One pound of honey
1/2 teaspoon of yeast nutrient
One packet of Fermentis SafAle S-04 yeast

One more gallon of Musselmans Apple Juice will be added after fermentation is complete



Here they are, side by side. the Apfelwein is on the left in a six and a half gallon carboy and the Wassail is on the right in a three gallon.





Highlights:
No heat involved so I didn't manage to burn myself
My jerk dog stayed out of the way
I didn't manage to forget anything
No major screw ups

Blooper reel:
I managed to spill honey on the stove
I spilled some of the Wassail on the floor trying to take an OG (see glossary below) reading
I forgot to have a beer or four while brewing, which is probably the biggest failure of the day.



Glossary

Apfelwein- A traditional German drink made from apple juice or cider

Dextrose- Corn sugar

FG- FG stands for Final Gravity and relates to the specific gravity of the beer/cider/wine after the yeast have ceased to ferment any longer. When the OG and FG are placed into an equation the amount of alcohol in the beer/cider/wine is calculated.

OG- OG stands for Original Gravity and relates to the specific gravity of the beer/cider/wine before any fermentation has taken place. This number, when placed in an equasion with the FG, shows how much alcohol is in the beer/cider/wine that you have brewed


Wassail- a traditional German drink made from apple juice and flavored with spices and fruit