Just cracked open a bottle of my first brew in two years...

...last night. I brewed a Brewers Best brand German Oktoberfet (although I substituted the Williamette and Vanguard hops the kit came with with Hallertau and Saaz and used a Wyeast Bavarian Lager activator instead of the dry Muntons yeast pack it came with). I just have to say, what the hell have I been doing for the last two years? There is nothing like cracking open a bottle and enjoying something you brewed yourself.

The Oktoberfest turned out absolutely wonderful. I allowed it to sit in primary for 10 days at 48 degrees and then I cold-crashed it for three days at 36 degrees (it left about two inches of trub in the bottom of the fermenter - cold crashing is awesome). Although it wasn't very clear (the cold crashing allowed most of the sediment to drop but there is still a pretty significant chill haze) the brew had a rich and creamy head on it that lasted FOREVER and it tasted awesome.

Welcome back to the obsession! I need to get myself a used frdige to use as a fermentation chamber...next on my list, my very long list :cross:

Yeah, I'm lucky that we happen to have a second fridge out in the garage (it came with the house). We only use the freezer portion of it to store meat and extra ice and stuff, so the lower part is my space and is big enough to hold two fermenters side by side or several corny kegs. It doesn't have a sophisticated temp. guage on it or anything but I took a little time and marked the actual temp. at each notch so I can decrease or increase the temp by degrees of 3-5 pretty easily. I just keep it around 40 normally but I will raise it to 48-50 to lager.