Hello from Belcamp, MD

Hello all,

I am an extract brewer originally from DE trying to make the beers that I want to drink. I have brewed for about six months now and have had some success. My first was a IPA kit that turned out very well. Next I tried an outmeal stout. This one turned out to have a very low final gravity. i guess it was from lack of grains since it was mostly an extract beer. next i tried a duel batch, a raspberry wheat and a regular wheat. the raspberry was the first i had tried to brew with fruit as well as my first time with an extra fermentation phase. the regular wheat went normally though. recently i had great success with a belgian style wheat that i came up with off the top of my head. my only complaint again was a low gravity and a light mouthfeel. i have since tried to bulk up my beers with malto dextrin. my current brew is another IPA made up on the spot. hopefully the mouthfeel is to my tastes. anyway, thats my story. i hope to hone my skills by talking to you all. thanks!

Welcome to the forums!

Where exactly in Maryland are you?

I am located north of baltimore. about a half hour or so.

Welcome krock! I'm from the north side of Baltimore myself (White Marsh).

Consider looking into the Maryland Libation Association, a local brewclub in Bel Air, MD that meets monthly for competitions and tastings.

Where do you get your brew supplies?

Well, there's the Thirsty Brewer in Baldwin, MD. It's about a mile north of Boordy Winery. There's also Maryland Homebrew down in Columbia. It's a haul for us northsiders, but they pretty much have everything you would ever want in stock, as they do a good bit of online/mail order business (mdhb.com).

Personally, I like the Thirsty Brewer. It's small and doesn't always have what you need, but you can email them in advance to find out if they got it, will always order in something you need, and the main dude --- TOM --- is also president of another Baltimore area brewclub (Wootown Brewers - wootown.org) that meets down at Clipper City on the south side. Being a member of either club will net you a small discount at both places, IIRC. Tom's a cool guy and is usually pretty helpful.

If you want a choice in extract kits (Ie - more than 30 different choices), go down to maryland homebrew and pick up a few at a time so the drive isn't wasted on 1 box of $30 beer kit. If you just want one thing to brew this weekend and don't much care, Thirsty Brewer usually carries about 8-10 different kits, usually the same ones every week. Ironically, the Thirsty Brewer is cheaper even though its' the smaller out of the way store in the middle of the country.

There's also this place in Aberdeen, which I found on White Labs website as a yeast distributor. I called over once on my day off and nobody answered -- in fact the answering machine picked up like it was a residence (something like--you've reached the <insert name here> family and offices of the homebrew cellar, nobody's around to take your call, yadda yadda), and haven't gotten the urge to drive 25 miles up that way to find out the place isn't what I think it is:

The Homebrew Cellar
815 Matthews Ave.
Aberdeen, MD 21001
4102737774

Great! Thanks for the info guys. I have been driving to DE, a place called How Do You Brew? They have the stuff I want, but its a haul. i like to use dry extracts as well as some crushed grain. will any of those places have what i want?

Thirsty brewer and mdhb both carry dry extract in 1lb and 3lb bags.

Once you get up the nerve to do the big switch, we're doing all grain starting this weekend at my place. If we don't F--- it up too bad, maybe you can wing down one weekend and AG brew with us...get you out of that expensive extract brewing.