Cleaning a Glass Carboy Sucks

I've always been a fan of beer. Well, not always, but since I've been of age. Or possibly slightly before. Anyway, this summer I've started homebrewing. Ben and Ryan have both been brewing for a while, and earlier this summer they lent me some spare equipment and helped me through the process of brewing and bottling my first batch. It was a Copper Ale, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, from the serenity and wonderful aroma of the boil to the rewarding first taste a month later.

About a week ago I borrowed another friend's equipment to brew another batch with Ben and Ryan; this time it's a Light Scottish Ale. Over this weekend I had to crack open the fermenter to add some oak chips, and I decided that before I did so it was time to stop mooching off my friends and buy my own equipment.

I headed over to Midwest Homebrewing Supplies and bought a kit:

The kit contained all the basic supplies for brewing and bottling beer. I also bought some other accessories, like a wort chiller (very useful for quickly cooling down your beer-in-progress before putting it into a fermenter).

Let me just say that Midwest Homebrewing Supplies is an awesome place if you're interested in brewing. There's so much there to look at. I could wander for a long time looking at all the equipment for making beer and wine. I felt like a kid on Christmas when I drove out of that place! If anyone needs gift ideas for me, just head on over to their website.

So now I have joined the ever-growing legion of homebrewers. Should be a fun time! I'll post updates here about what I brew. Too bad for your sake, dear reader, that I can't post taste samples...

If you're not familiar with homebrewing you might be wondering about the title of this post. A glass carboy is that big glass bottle you see in the picture above. I used a borrowed carboy to ferment my Scottish Light Ale. Once I had my own carboy I siphoned the beer from the borrowed one to mine. That went fine, but then I had to clean the stuck-on dead yeast from the inside of the borrowed carboy. Look at the hole at the top of that thing - it's tiny! Cleaning the inside is no easy job. The long L-shaped brush in the picture helps, but it's still no easy task. Even though that part was a pain, I still enjoyed the process. I take that as a sign that this is a good hobby for me!