The last 6 pack

This year I met a new friend and graphic designer, named Will. He is a home brewing fan. We chose to a make a delicious Holiday Winter Ale, for 2009's holiday season. I decided to document the process in my blog, check the posts below! This is the final six pack that I saved for our New Years Eve party. I DJ this event with friends and family every year. Everyone loved the beer! The challenge as a graphic artist was to make our own "brand" of beer. We decided on the name "Rumble Fish", Winter Ale. First I did a pencil sketch after checking out some stuff online. Then I scanned it into Adobe Illustrator, and traced the lines to ink. I colored it and rendered it as a vector. I did some finishing touches and font work in Photoshop and printed the design on labels. I think it turned out great, both the beer and the graphic design/ marketing project!

Finishing our craft brew project.

After the sugar was added we then filled the bottles. The sugar was necessary to feed the little microbes that make the alcohol. We ended up with 48 beers and a couple of 16 ounce bottles. Enough for friends holidays and good times!

Capping the beer!

Putting the caps on the beer. Well the beer is not quite done. We put the caps on, but the yeasty critters need to eat their sugar and finish their job. So just a little bit more time, and they will be ready, for the final job cycle- enjoyment of a job well done!

The whole process of home brewing or craft brewing was a great experience, I would recommend anyone try it. Pairing beer with different meals, and trying out different ingredients in the beer to make it original is fun.

It's easier then you think, and actually affordable to but the beer making kit and the ingredient/ recipe kits too. Check out the website where we got the kit and the ingredients for our now famous Rumble Fish Beer!

Cleaning Bottles.

We bought an adapter that screws onto the faucet that makes it quick and easy to clean the bottles. First we took two 5 gallon buckets and added the sanitizer solution. The we manually cleaned each bottle as shown in this picture and let them soak in the solution. We then took each bottle out of the soaking solution and blasted them again, before hanging them on the bottle tree to dry.

After we capped each beer by hand, we gave them a quick rinse and dry, and then packed them in cases for storage.

Our "holiday winter ale" beer making kit yielded two 24 packs, and two 16oz bottles.

These need to be stores in a cool dark place and not be exposed to light or sunlight for a week. At one time during the week turn them upside down and give them a swirl to make sure the yeast is doing it's job. Look for bubbles. This shows that the C02 is being formed by the yeast eating the last bit of sugar you add to your brew, before bottling.

NOTE: wear gloves when cleaning bottles or the sanitizer will dry your hands.

This is pretty much it, when about ready you can label your beer as we are this weekend, and I will complete the micro brew blog with a pic and video of the finished product!