Post by Elkeid on Dec 17, 2013 17:18:34 GMT
Elkeid was going to do it. She was determined to do it. She needed to do it. 'Today, I am going to make some damn liquor.' The woman stood outside a small brewery, where the People of the Land made their bleak tasting drivel. "YOU HEAR THAT? I'M GOING TO RUN YOU LOT OUT OF BUSINESS!" She shook her fist at the building, feeling strangely invigorated. 'Pretty soon, only the People of the Land will be drinking this filth. Something really needs to be done about this.' She tugged at the cheap fabric of her cloth top before striding off. 'Now all I need to do is figure out how to make beer, or at least remember how Imogen did it.' Imogen was the sort to brew her own beer from time to time, though she only sold it at the bar during special occasions, and it was usually for some themed drink or two.
The woman paused and smacked one fist into an open palm. 'I know exactly what I can make!' Unfortunately, she might require the aid of a player with the chef subclass. The drink she considered making required that she make a creamy mixture to mix it up with. 'Hmm…' She didn't know any chefs (yet) so it would be best to try something else for now. It was a shame too, since she liked sweet drinks well enough. 'Fxxk it. I'll just make the beer anyway.' It wouldn't just be plain beer, though. She was going to spice the hell out of it. 'I don't need a chef for that~.'
After a bit of searching and haggling around the marketplace, Elkeid commandeered the kitchen of the inn she frequented, and spread the materials along the counter. She had everything she needed - a cheap, enamel boiling kettle, a strainer, a spoon for stirring, a thermometer, a hydrometer, fermentation containers, fermentation locks, a siphon hose, bottles (of course), capper and caps, hopped malt extract, hops, yeast, water and corn sugar. Each item and material was carefully sorted into their own categories. She rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and tied on an apron as she eyed the ingredients. 'Time to make Imogen proud!'
The Beginner's Guide To Brewing handbook emphasized cleanliness, so she begin the painstaking process of sterilizing and cleaning her tools, which she left to hang and drip dry. It took a little longer than she had anticipated, so she cracked open a window and ignited the end of a hand rolled and lackluster cigarette. 'That gardener better not have sold me oregano.' The last guy to have done so had a chair broken over his head.
Two cigarettes and a swig of water later, Elkeid was ready to get started. She poured two gallons of water into her kettle and left it to boil. While that was going on, she placed the cans of malt extract into a pot of hot water to liquefy the contents. 'There's so much water to handle.' She blew a strand of hair away from her face as she carefully retrieved the cans and stirred them into the kettle of boiling water. After the malt came a 1/2 teaspoon of non-iodized salt and a teaspoon of gypsum.
'...I just made a "wort." This is kind of repulsive.' She had to let it continue boiling for about thirty more minutes, and watch out for frothing and overflowing. After that, the woman had to add half of the flavored hops, and let the mixture boil for another forty five minutes. She also had to stir occasionally, and after adding some specialty malts (chocolate malt flavored because women just loved chocolate), and let it boil for another thirty neeping minutes. Wait, back up five minutes. She had to add the finishing hops during those last few minutes. 'Good lord this is annoying as hell. If I had known it would have taken me nearly two hours, I would have brought a book or something.'
The next line in her Beginner's Guide to Brewing started off as "Step 2." '...That was only the first step?! How many are there?!' There were apparently five more steps she needed to go through before she could meet her objective. 'Oh my lord.'
Step two gave her more to do than watching liquid boil, at least. Elkeid had to remove the kettle from the burning inferno and pour the hot wort through the strainer and into the primary fermenter. She wrinkled her nose as some of the grains and used hops managed to invade the filtered liquid below. If only she had bought some cheesecloth. 'Eh, my first batch won't be spectacular, anyway.' She poured two quarts of hot water over the hops and grain within the fermenter, apparently to extract as much of the remaining flavors and starch as possible. The Beginner's Guide To Brewing called this "sparging" the wort. 'Is that even a word?' She then picked up a sterilized spoon and stirred a cup's worth of corn sugar into the mixture. She did this until the sugar was completely dissolved, and had to add more boiled water to the fermenter to make five gallons of the stuff.
Making beer was so damn exhausting.
She couldn't fill the container completely, of course. She had to allow for enough space to be left over, which would be filled with foam and gas during the first day of fermentation. After that, she had to check the starch content of her brew with her hydrometer. Everything seemed in order to her yes, so she eagerly moved onto the third step: adding the yeast.
Adding the yeast had to wait a few minutes while she checked the temperature of her brew with the thermometer. She waited another few minutes for the temperature to drop down to 75 degrees, then began the process of sprinkling in the yeast. Ten more minutes needed to go by before she could begin the stirring of the yeast, an act called "pitching" the wort. She decided to skip the proofing process, since it wasn't a required step. 'I'll let my intuition guide me for once.'
She sighed as she placed the lid on the fermenter, and secured it with a fermentation lock. She filled the lock with one-third of boiled water as instructed, and stored the fermenter in the kitchen's cellar. Now came the long and boring part - she had to let the fermenter sit for a few hours (two or three days outside of Elder Tale), where it would form a foam layer called the "krausen". 'I guess it's time to get some questing out of the way in the meantime.' She'd be damned if she sat around, doing nothing all day.
As it turns out, she did not go questing, but ended up visiting a bookstore instead. Her meager amount of gold was enough to net her a few books, thick volumes on brewing, exorcism, and a few trashy romance novels. They would be more than enough to keep her busy for a while, and may even help her with her classes later. For now, though, it was time to do step four.
She had to transfer her brew to the secondary fermenter, but only after she went through the process of sterilization again. Once that little task was completed, the woman siphoned the contents from the first fermenter into the second. Splashing was something she had to be especially careful of, since she ran the risk of picking up bacteria from the air. She capped the fermenter and added a fresh lock with ever fresher amounts of one-third of water to it, and dragged the container back into the cellar.
This fourth step took even longer to complete, and by the time the timer went off, Elkeid had finished off the romance novels and was halfway through the large tome on brewing. She checked the container for any active fermentation, bubbles, and read the contents with her hydrometer. The fermentation had ceased, and no bubbles were rising. The hydrometer gave her a reading similar to the readied project, which she took as a go ahead to conduct the fifth and final step - bottling.
Elkeid felt successful, if not exhausted, with the completion of her first brewing. She thoroughly washed the bottles out with hot water, sterilized them, and cleaned and sterilized her tools while those were set down to dry. 'I can't believe Imogen goes through all this trouble, just to make a little beer.' She poured two cups of water into a pot, added one cup of corn sugar for "priming," and set the pot to boil for five minutes while she siphoned the beer into the primary fermenter. Once the sugar-water was finished boiling, she added that to the fermenter and stirred it until the contents were well-blended. This step was meant to carbonate the beer upon bottling.
Next came the bottling, during which she avoided splashing and left an inch of space within each bottle. She stored the beer in the same dark and cool space as before, where it seemed to take ages before it was ready to be considered drinkable. The wait was well worth it, however. A small prompt from the system appeared on her interface to congratulate her on making "Dark Beer." What tasted even sweeter was the beer itself. It wasn't a true alcoholic beverage, nor was it without that aftertaste the food here had, but there was some actual flavor to the beer. She was sure to make stronger and better stuff in the future, but for now she would just enjoy the fruits of her labor.
The woman paused and smacked one fist into an open palm. 'I know exactly what I can make!' Unfortunately, she might require the aid of a player with the chef subclass. The drink she considered making required that she make a creamy mixture to mix it up with. 'Hmm…' She didn't know any chefs (yet) so it would be best to try something else for now. It was a shame too, since she liked sweet drinks well enough. 'Fxxk it. I'll just make the beer anyway.' It wouldn't just be plain beer, though. She was going to spice the hell out of it. 'I don't need a chef for that~.'
After a bit of searching and haggling around the marketplace, Elkeid commandeered the kitchen of the inn she frequented, and spread the materials along the counter. She had everything she needed - a cheap, enamel boiling kettle, a strainer, a spoon for stirring, a thermometer, a hydrometer, fermentation containers, fermentation locks, a siphon hose, bottles (of course), capper and caps, hopped malt extract, hops, yeast, water and corn sugar. Each item and material was carefully sorted into their own categories. She rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and tied on an apron as she eyed the ingredients. 'Time to make Imogen proud!'
The Beginner's Guide To Brewing handbook emphasized cleanliness, so she begin the painstaking process of sterilizing and cleaning her tools, which she left to hang and drip dry. It took a little longer than she had anticipated, so she cracked open a window and ignited the end of a hand rolled and lackluster cigarette. 'That gardener better not have sold me oregano.' The last guy to have done so had a chair broken over his head.
Two cigarettes and a swig of water later, Elkeid was ready to get started. She poured two gallons of water into her kettle and left it to boil. While that was going on, she placed the cans of malt extract into a pot of hot water to liquefy the contents. 'There's so much water to handle.' She blew a strand of hair away from her face as she carefully retrieved the cans and stirred them into the kettle of boiling water. After the malt came a 1/2 teaspoon of non-iodized salt and a teaspoon of gypsum.
'...I just made a "wort." This is kind of repulsive.' She had to let it continue boiling for about thirty more minutes, and watch out for frothing and overflowing. After that, the woman had to add half of the flavored hops, and let the mixture boil for another forty five minutes. She also had to stir occasionally, and after adding some specialty malts (chocolate malt flavored because women just loved chocolate), and let it boil for another thirty neeping minutes. Wait, back up five minutes. She had to add the finishing hops during those last few minutes. 'Good lord this is annoying as hell. If I had known it would have taken me nearly two hours, I would have brought a book or something.'
The next line in her Beginner's Guide to Brewing started off as "Step 2." '...That was only the first step?! How many are there?!' There were apparently five more steps she needed to go through before she could meet her objective. 'Oh my lord.'
Step two gave her more to do than watching liquid boil, at least. Elkeid had to remove the kettle from the burning inferno and pour the hot wort through the strainer and into the primary fermenter. She wrinkled her nose as some of the grains and used hops managed to invade the filtered liquid below. If only she had bought some cheesecloth. 'Eh, my first batch won't be spectacular, anyway.' She poured two quarts of hot water over the hops and grain within the fermenter, apparently to extract as much of the remaining flavors and starch as possible. The Beginner's Guide To Brewing called this "sparging" the wort. 'Is that even a word?' She then picked up a sterilized spoon and stirred a cup's worth of corn sugar into the mixture. She did this until the sugar was completely dissolved, and had to add more boiled water to the fermenter to make five gallons of the stuff.
Making beer was so damn exhausting.
She couldn't fill the container completely, of course. She had to allow for enough space to be left over, which would be filled with foam and gas during the first day of fermentation. After that, she had to check the starch content of her brew with her hydrometer. Everything seemed in order to her yes, so she eagerly moved onto the third step: adding the yeast.
Adding the yeast had to wait a few minutes while she checked the temperature of her brew with the thermometer. She waited another few minutes for the temperature to drop down to 75 degrees, then began the process of sprinkling in the yeast. Ten more minutes needed to go by before she could begin the stirring of the yeast, an act called "pitching" the wort. She decided to skip the proofing process, since it wasn't a required step. 'I'll let my intuition guide me for once.'
She sighed as she placed the lid on the fermenter, and secured it with a fermentation lock. She filled the lock with one-third of boiled water as instructed, and stored the fermenter in the kitchen's cellar. Now came the long and boring part - she had to let the fermenter sit for a few hours (two or three days outside of Elder Tale), where it would form a foam layer called the "krausen". 'I guess it's time to get some questing out of the way in the meantime.' She'd be damned if she sat around, doing nothing all day.
As it turns out, she did not go questing, but ended up visiting a bookstore instead. Her meager amount of gold was enough to net her a few books, thick volumes on brewing, exorcism, and a few trashy romance novels. They would be more than enough to keep her busy for a while, and may even help her with her classes later. For now, though, it was time to do step four.
She had to transfer her brew to the secondary fermenter, but only after she went through the process of sterilization again. Once that little task was completed, the woman siphoned the contents from the first fermenter into the second. Splashing was something she had to be especially careful of, since she ran the risk of picking up bacteria from the air. She capped the fermenter and added a fresh lock with ever fresher amounts of one-third of water to it, and dragged the container back into the cellar.
This fourth step took even longer to complete, and by the time the timer went off, Elkeid had finished off the romance novels and was halfway through the large tome on brewing. She checked the container for any active fermentation, bubbles, and read the contents with her hydrometer. The fermentation had ceased, and no bubbles were rising. The hydrometer gave her a reading similar to the readied project, which she took as a go ahead to conduct the fifth and final step - bottling.
Elkeid felt successful, if not exhausted, with the completion of her first brewing. She thoroughly washed the bottles out with hot water, sterilized them, and cleaned and sterilized her tools while those were set down to dry. 'I can't believe Imogen goes through all this trouble, just to make a little beer.' She poured two cups of water into a pot, added one cup of corn sugar for "priming," and set the pot to boil for five minutes while she siphoned the beer into the primary fermenter. Once the sugar-water was finished boiling, she added that to the fermenter and stirred it until the contents were well-blended. This step was meant to carbonate the beer upon bottling.
Next came the bottling, during which she avoided splashing and left an inch of space within each bottle. She stored the beer in the same dark and cool space as before, where it seemed to take ages before it was ready to be considered drinkable. The wait was well worth it, however. A small prompt from the system appeared on her interface to congratulate her on making "Dark Beer." What tasted even sweeter was the beer itself. It wasn't a true alcoholic beverage, nor was it without that aftertaste the food here had, but there was some actual flavor to the beer. She was sure to make stronger and better stuff in the future, but for now she would just enjoy the fruits of her labor.
Words:1609
Muse:Beer song
Notes:Making beer.
Tags:@beer
made by benetnasch of ET
