Oculon.org - The Blog

The beer log was conceived on a cold January day, when I had nothing really better to do. Here you see the beginnings of Ocu-Brew, the best known and oldest of the content beers. At the time of writing (~Feb 7th, 2004) Ocu-Brew breweries has produced 3 successful microbrews and it on its way to adding a fourth to the lineage of fine, aged beers.

I've decided to go through with it and purchase a beer making kit. I really do want to make beer but the calling has been coming from this very empty space in my utility closet.

Something needs to go here, and I think its just perfect for a home brewing kit and since I've got Christmas money to spend, the idea fits perfectly! To get things started I looked through the phone book to find a beer brewing supply store.

Looks like the Stone City Brewing Co is the only local supplier. I'm still not sure if I want to buy the kit locally. It might be cheaper and better to search for an online store. I'm pretty sure that I want to get the ingredients locally to ensure freshness. I'll have to wait to talk to Ass Masterson about what he thinks. He knows a lot about beer, and belly dancing too.

Today I gathered a lot of information, and there's a lot of information to gather! I found one web site that has lots of info. They list several items for me to procure:

I also talked to Wolcott at work, he knows a lot about brewing beer. He told me the closet might be a bad place to do it because it might be too warm. I've thought of a new place which is cooler and better vented. He also recommended adding one more item to my list which is a 5 gal jug of water. I can use the water in the brewing process. Wolcott also told me that the brewing process can be a little smelly. We'll have to work out some sort of way to vent room. Maybe something like an air freshener next to the the whole deal.

I've also read that its quite a bit of work to do the whole thing. I'll have to wait for Ass Masterson to come back before doing all this.

I've also decided on the type of beer which will be an Ale. I've also decided to get an ingredient kit since apparently doing your beer from a recipe is very difficult. I also heard of a local store that may have supplies that's fairly near my apartment. I'll have to check it out after work.

Last night I went to the Coralville Liquor Store because I heard they had brewing supplies. They had a TON of stuff. I was impressed. They usually have kits that have everything you need but they were sold out. The guy that stocks the supplies usually comes in twice a month so it will be another week before he comes back.

They also had some premixed supplies including one for a brown ale! My favorite type of beer! I'm pumped. I also have to dig up some bottles. Not sure where I'm going to get them, I need about 40 of the non twist off variety. I'll have to look online I guess.

I'll upload a pic of the new possible brewing location later tonight... its right next to my TV.

Well, I called the Stone City Brewery and they did have one kit left last night. The problem was in finding the place. I left work at 4:30 and rushed home to get my car with directions from Matt, who in the past has been very reliable. The brewery closes at 6:00 and was about 10 miles away so there's wasn't too much room for error as far time was concerned.

I spent my time looking for Highway 1 which goes north out of Iowa City. I ended up in West Branch which is east of Iowa City, thanks to some not so spectacular directions.

Needless to say, I didn't make it on time, hell I didn't even make it to Solon. Last night was a disaster but I'm going to try again tonight. I'm now armed with a good map, my car is in the lot next door and I also have a renewed sense of determination to reach my goal.

If this trip fails tonight, I might just try Cedar Rapids, the big city in eastern Iowa.

You know, finding a beer brewing kit locally shouldn't be this difficult. Out of frustration I forgot to take the pic of the new brewing site, but I'll try to do that soon!

In spite of Matt, I managed to track down a brewing kit tonight at the Stone City Brewing Co, complete with a mix for an "English Brown Ale". Amy's husband Jason invited me over to brew some beer with him. Amy says he's read a lot of books, so I may delay my inaugural batch so that I can get some experience and avoid the "rookie" mistakes that I'm bound to commit. Matt suggested that I could help him make the beer and then attack him and take all of it. I've really got a feeling that Matt is a troubled person deep down inside.

This trip to Solon was rather uneventful and peaceful as the sun set to my left (as it would when a person is traveling North). The Stone City Brewery is located behind a Casey's gas station. They have a small bar, and the people were really friendly. They also sell bottles which have been sterilized to some extent. I think I'll drop by there and pick up a couple of cases after the brewing gets started.

To the right are some pics of the stuff I got tonight. I now have everything I need sans bottles and a brewing pot. The nice lady at Stone City said to avoid using an aluminum (AH-LU-MIHN-UHM) pot because it can destroy the flavor. So what am I supposed to use... copper? I guess I'll have to read the award winning book to find out how big of a pot I need, and that reminds me, I need a stainless steel stirring spoon too...

Ass Masterson says he'll be back this weekend and hopefully we can start it next week sometime. For those of you who are interested, I've started a thread in the OcuForum which relates to this blog. Any comments of suggestions about the beer log are welcome. I'm also taking suggestions as to what to call my beer when it's all done!

I've been spending a lot of time reading the book that came with the beer kit. It covers the process start to finish and is very engrossing. I won't be able to start the brew until maybe MLK day so I'll use the time to be a thorough as possible in my planning. My mother came to visit today and when I told her about this project, she got a little upset. Basically, she said I shouldn't have told her but hey, at least I'm not like the guy on The Spark (yet).

As you can see I purchased our boiling pot, from none other than Wallmart. Of course it took some directing and more navigation in to find the damn thing in that humongous store than it took to get me to Solon the other night, but I emerged unscathed and with a 16 quart pot. At least Matt wasn't there to steer me into the shampoo isle. The pot sports a porcelain on steel superstructure and a three ply bottom. I also found a plastic stirring spoon that should suffice for this project.

Only a few items remain. I want to purchase some gypsum as a coagulating agent and get a five gallon container of bottled water.

I picked up some gypsum tonight which will act as a water hardener. This makes it so that stuff will coagulate and fall out of the suspension and make it a clearer beer.

After little activity on the beer front, OcuBrew™ Brown Ale got started. Here in out-of-order and non-matching sizes are the photos from today:

I'm a little worried about sanitizing everything, instead of bleach, we used a more "less toxic" cleaner that came with the kit. It didn't mention how long to soak stuff, only to "wash" stuff with it. I guess we'll find out when we taste the beer.

I've decided that it will be called OcuBrew™ Brown Ale. We'll be making labels. Under normal circumstances I would out-source this to the OcuForum crew but I think I'll take this one on myself. Somehow the PC-DOS upgrades just aren't bringing in the contestants like they used to.