My first homebrewing project is complete. I've had a few of my 8-Bit Ales by now. Though I look forward to having more, I'd like to let a few of them continue to condition in their bottles over the next few months. I also want to give some away. More and more, I wish I hadn't had to dump so much of it. But that's water, or maybe beer, under the bridge.
What did I learn from this whole process? For one thing, I learned that Charlie Papazian was right. Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew. Lots of things went wrong, and I overreacted to every one of them. Somehow, when it was all over with, I still had good beer to drink. Next time, I swear I will be more willing to go with the flow.
It'll help that I now have the answers to so many of the elementary questions that concerned me at the beginning. I'm confident about how to sanitize my equipment. I won't stress my hydrometer readings, or my wort temperatures, quite as much. I know what kinds of caps I need for my bottles. (Okay, I am still a little mad about that one.) I can concentrate on the recipe.
At times, I doubted that I would ever undertake another homebrew, but now I can't imagine not doing so. There's a sense of pride that comes from sipping a delicious beer of your own design, and a sense of fulfillment that comes from having crates full of them in your basement. The next one will still be a malt extract brew, but I'd like to get a little bit more ambitious with the recipe. I'm thinking a porter sounds tasty.
That wraps it up for now. Whenever I start homebrew batch #2, I'll be sure to chronicle it right here. And the next batch will be even better, because a Second Draft is always an improvement.
