The Finish

, a photo by coty_soult on Flickr.

After the fermentation was done I still wasn't sure if we got it right or not. It had the right color and everything it's just that this was our first time brewing and I was sure that we messed up somewhere along the line. Well we took the carboy into the bathroom to siphon the beer out of the carboy and into a keg. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I got a kegerator for free from my brother in law..... Awesome, and it could not have come at a better time. So anyway back to kegging, well bottling first, it took us a while to figure out how to get the siphon going but eventually we got it and sent it through a strainer that although the holes were a little big did the job just fine. After siphoning a six pack worth into some bottles, we put the rest of it into a keg. Now came the hard part, the waiting as Tom Petty says.

So I figured that if we waited two weeks it would be close to being ready. Naturally, I went down to check it the next day. Unfortunately I found the CO2 tank was empty. I thought for sure I checked all my connections properly, but I figured that it had to be one of the hose fittings that that I put on. Well, as it turns out it was the only crimp-on connection that I ordered. So I had to cut the crimp-on off and put on a hose clamp. It did cost me a full tank of CO2 though. I wrote the company an e-mail and they refunded me my shipping, which didn't even cover the cost of the tank, needless to say, I won't be using that company any more. Oh well no worries, I've got beer in the keg and I am nervous but hopeful.

Tap day came and man was I nervous. My friend for the first pour... Wow pleasant surprise, it was excellent! We both had a few beers and waited till we could get together again before we really put a hurting on it. About a week later him and a few other friends came over and the keg didn't last very long that night. Every body loved it, and wanted to know what was brewing next. I hadn't given it that much thought but my buddy that I brewed with wanted to do a wheat beer, so we decided on a honey wheat heffe. I'll keep you posted on that one. Until then I'll leave you with the picture of the first pour.