Hi from Delaware

Hello everyone, one of my friends and I have decided to take the plunge into home brewing. I found these forums in my research on what all it entails, and have spent most of the weekend reading posts and going through Palmer's How To Brew webpage. We went up to our LHBS (How Do You Brew?) and picked up their deluxe starter kit with a 5 gallon glass carboy, and a Brewer's Best English Brown Ale extract kit. We both have the day off work on Friday, so we're looking forward to getting started this week!

Welcome. Sounds like you are indeed ready. Enjoy your first brew day and let us know how things go.

You’ll see there are a few Delawareans that frequent this forum. Check out the HomeBrewTalk Groups - Delaware Brewers

Welcome and Happy Hopping!

Welcome to the board! Where in Delaware are you?

Welcome

menschmaschine said:

Welcome to the board! Where in Delaware are you?

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Thanks for the warm welcomes everyone. I'm from Bear, just a little ways south of Newark.

Ironhill!!! That's an AHA participating brewpub.

Welcome!

Well, today was brew day, and I think everything went pretty well. We hit our target OG (1.042 for a brown ale), and didn't have any major mishaps. I probably was being a bit over paranoid about sanitization, but I don't think that ever hurt anyone. Now it's time to be patient. Not my strongest point, but in 6 long weeks we'll (hopefully) be cracking our very first home brew.

It's never a bad thing to oversanitize. It's much more preferable than undersanitizing and wasting a brew. Now just get another beer brewing and it will help with the patience. Plus if you do another brew every 2-3 weeks then you should always have plenty of beer on hand. Just wait until you start brewing a couple batches weekly. Then you know you have full blown HIV (Homebrew Insanity Virus).

Welcome to the forum!! Check out the MD/DE/PA/DC/whatever brew day we have planned in the gatherings forum. We're getting together in Mid may just north of Baltimore right off I-95.

thePudwhack said:

Ironhill!!! That's an AHA participating brewpub.

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Forget iron hill, if you're in Bear (I am too) go to Stewarts.

jezter6 said:

Welcome to the forum!! Check out the MD/DE/PA/DC/whatever brew day we have planned in the gatherings forum. We're getting together in Mid may just north of Baltimore right off I-95.

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I will second this!!!

Welcome, How Do You Brew is a great store, nice folks!

Wilmington here...

wfd146 said:

...Wilmington here...

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Which, in the local vernacular, is pronounced Wiminton

I was actually over at Stewart's for St. Patty's day and Iron Hill on Thursday. Both had great brews, but Iron Hill's Dry Irish Stout blew me away.

Anyway we racked to the secondary last night and we snuck a shot glass full of the beer to try out. Even green and with tons of yeast and little bits of hops floating around in it, it still tasted pretty good. We hit our target gravity of 1.010 from 1.042, so I'm excited. If this is the worst the beer is ever going to taste, it's definitely going to be a drinkable brew.