This is my (our, my roommate Adam and I) first attempt, obviously. We're doing a Nut Brown Ale as both of us peg Newcastle as our favorite beer. It's a "dark" beer, but its light enough that most people who don't like dark beer even enjoy it. The chocolatey tones of Newcastle are excellent, and hopefully we will get some of that action. Yes we look like tools in these pictures, we tried for that effect. When we run a brewery we'll be laughing at you, don't worry.

Making Wort

I'm not going to go through all the steps as I'm not an expert anyway. I've read John Palmer's How to Brew and read all of Northern Brewer's documentation. The only guide I plan to do is how to fit a Corny keg that shouldn't fit in a dorm fridge, into one. So, here are the pictures with a brief description:

Steeping the grains...	Looking like a tool..	That didn't take long to get like that

Malt Extract

So the water boiled, we take it off the burner and add the malt extract which is what the happy little yeast will eat up to ferment. Before you become an expert brewer and learn to extract fermentable sugars from grain, you use a syrupy-extract instead. It saves a lot of time and there is less room for error. Honestly, I will do all-grain brewing at some point, but I think this method will stick around for a while with me.

Adding malt extract..	Looking like tools..	More toolish behavior

Adding Hops

Hops give the beer flavor and aroma, as well as acting as a natural preservative.

Adding the first (Challenger) hops..	Hops hops	The hops before falling back (I'm blowing on it trying to get the steam down)

Chilling Wort

We hauled the wort to the shower to get iced and cooled with cold water. You need to get it down to about 70F for the yeast. This was not cool at all (no pun intended) and I plan to invest in a counterflow chiller. I also lost my worthy assistant when it was just about ready, so I had to pitch the yeast and pour the wort into the carboy myself. You'll notice the jump in pictures.

Moving 3 gallons of hot wort..	On the bed of ice	This took way too long..

Fermenting

There's nothing left for me to do now. Lets hope the yeast take to life.

69deg Farenheit	Please start bubbling