The story: A couple of years ago I spent a few weeks during a summer in Germany. While I was there, I had the darkest, sweetest beer imaginable. Since I returned to the U.S., I have not had a beer like it. I have been to the specialty beer stores, tasted everything I could, and can't find what I want. What can I do now? Make my own!

So, we started by looking at a whole bunch of brewing websites (see these links) and finally buying a True Brew kit. The kit contained just about everything one needed. A fermenting bucket, bottling bucket, bottle capper, hydrometer, etc. The only other supplies we need were a large pot (bought one at walmart for about $25), a strainer (need a large one!) and an extra thermometer.

• Brew #1 - Boch Kit
• Brew #2 - Nut Brown Ale Kit
• Brew #3 - Celebrator Doppleboch recipe
• Brew #4 - Sweet Brown Ale
• Brew #5 - Malty American Dopplebock
• Beer Labels

Brew #1 - Boch kit

As for ingredients, we also bought a True Brew ingredient kit. The kit contained all the grains and malt extract and instructions. We decided to do a kit or two to start with to get the mechanics of the process down. The first kit we bought was a Boch.

Note from 7 July 2000 when brewing the Boch:

1. Not sure if everything sterilized properly
2. Didn't have a good strainer so some grain got into wort
3. Lots of foaming during boiling - need to constantly monitor and adjust temp
4. Primary fermentation seemed to last only 24 hours
5. Temp about 74 degF - on high end
6. Realized later that we forgot to take a hydrometer reading before sealing up the fermenter. Nothing really wrong with this... we just won't know the alcoholic content of this beer.
7. Bottled on 7/17 - lots of sediment, seemed to waste a lot of beer, filled 44 bottles

But as of 14 August, we are drinking the Boch and it tastes great!

Brew #2 - Nut Brown Ale Kit

Brew #3 - Celebrator Doppleboch recipe

Well it's been a while. But now that Ken and I have settled into our new place, I decided it was time to make a batch again. We went to the homebrew supply store last weekend. I intended to get a kit again since it's been a while. But when I got there and started talking to the folks that run the place, I told them my interest in doing a doppleboch, and they pointed out a recipe to me from the book "Clone Brews". They said they had all the ingredients, so $40 later I had them, too.

But they were all sold out of their copy of the book. So I took notes on the recipe. Mental note 1... next time I decide to take notes, I should write it all out verbatim.

Here are my notes from brewing on 8 May 2001:

1. There's that having the recipe thing. I wrote down that the "flavor" hops got added at the end, but I wasn't sure which one was the flavor hops. I guesses that it would be the Hallertau.
2. Don't turn you back on the boiling... had a problem with it boiling over. A lot of hops went overboard. I hope it won't detract from the heartyness of this beer.
3. Read previous notes! I forgot to take a specific gravity reading. I also didn't have cold water in the fridge, so it took a long time to cool again.
4. Ferment was slow to occur... I don't know if this is normal for this brew or not.

The thing that's really bothering me is the last note. This brew requires the 2 fermentation technique. 1 week in the bucket, and then 6-10 weeks in a glass jar (which I'll purchase this week). So I don't know if the fermentation bubbles I'm seeing now are normal. It's definitely not bubbling as fervourishly (is that a word?) as the past brews. This is an expensive one to mess up. And it'll be a while before I find out whether it's good or bad.

Update: I was at the homebrew supply store and wound up talking to someone who works for the Frederick brewing company. I wound up explaining the difficulties I had in making this batch. It turns out, I might not have used enough yeast. The suggestion was to take a specific gravity reading amd if it was not where it should be, pitch some more yeast. Well, I took the reading, and it definitely was where it should of been. I even tasted it and it tasted like beer. :) So, I bottled it!

Brew #4 - Sweet Brown Ale

Brew #5 - Malty American Doppleboch