Greetings from Reno

Hi everyone. Been reading for a couple of months now, and decided to say hello. My name is Rob, and I live on the East side of Reno, NV.
A friend gave me a Beer Machine a while ago, along with the cans of assorted "beer flavors" or whatever. After much procrastination, I finally decided to put it together and try it out. After the first week, I realized that the yeast that came with the kit was dead. I visited my local HBS and secured a few packets of ale yeast, went home, and pitched it. To make a long story short, after a few weeks of waiting for, (and finally tasting), what i will describe as nothing more than "carbonated molasses", I decided that perhaps I should just do it the old-fashioned way.
Being a bit intimidated by the prospect of brewing a beer from scratch, I decided to start with cider, since I really enjoy drinking it.
I started small, with two different test batches.
Since then, it has turned into several one gallon batches, in primary fermentation, one gallon of cherry/strawberry wine, and six gallons of ed's apfelwein in a 6.5 gallon carboy. I just bottled my first twelve-pack from batch #1 tonight and I'm looking forward to bottling the apfelwein so that I can start a (hopefully) delicious beer. I guess that's about it for now. Salutations!

Welcome!
There's a dive place somewhere in Reno (i was last there in 2000) that serves up the best roasted prime rib ribs that i have ever tasted...

Welcome to HBT!
When you brew your first beer make sure it is all malt. Don't add any corn sugar (except at bottling) and you will be quite pleased.
Enjoy!

Welcome. I love your Sheriff's Department.

welcome from a fellow renoite.

Hey Rob, I'm Robb.

Welcome, my good man! Please let us know how the apple cider turns out. I would like to try that for a second project if it is not any harder than brewing beer. I am a complete newbie and haven't even got my feet wet yet.

good to know there's another noob around town to compare recipes and maybe do some tastings.

Good to see that there are other true Nevadans here on this site. I hope tp be posting more and probably will once I get the first batch done. Don't know how it s going to turn out as I am doing the whole "kit thing" I will let you know. Just wanted to say, "Hey!"

Giving it my first try as we speak.

Hi, guys. I'm probably way late on this thread, but good to hear about other Renoites joining up. Won't be able to meet any of you for quite awhile now: I'm spending this semester and summer in Florida, and I sure miss the 2nd St. home brew shop. If you haven't gone there yet, do drop in. My roommate and I (who split the cost of our first startup kit with me) have had good luck with their recipes. Have fun!