I don't really want to post the same angle of pics from the other batch, so I tried to find a few different things to show. This first picture is from the very beginning. Before my water comes to a boil, I must add my grains and steep them at 155 degrees for about 30 min.
Next, I remove from heat and add 6 lbs of wheat malt extract and stir until it dissolves. Then I add 1 oz of pellet hops and boil for 60 min. Here is a pic of that stage.
After the boil is complete I need to chill the wort down below 80 degrees as quickly as possible in order to pitch my yeast. I sanitize a few containers the night before and freeze some blocks of ice to help with the chilling process. That is what you see floating on top of the wort.
Here are two pictures of the yeast packets that I buy from Wyeast. The packet on the left is an "unactivated" packet. There is a nutrient pack inside the larger packet. The day before you're ready to brew you have to break the smaller pack full of nutrients. If the packet swells, then the yeast are viable and ready to be pitched. If not, then ABORT! As you can tell, my packet swelled nicely.
And finally my favorite part... drinking the brew. Here is a picture of the brew and a picture of how happy this brew made Bob...
