New brewers in Gainesville Fl

Hi all,

I've been lurking here for about a month but didn't want to introduce myself until I'd done at least one brew. My brother and I did an AHB Raspberry Porter kit two weeks ago, and we're going to bottle this weekend. I've enjoyed reading posts and others' advice, and I look forward to being a part of this community.

The brew session went fine - I allowed the beer to sit in primary longer than usual as I don't yet have a glass secondary to put things in. I took a gravity reading yesterday, and it was probably the best warm, non-carbonated beer I've ever tasted. I think I might be hooked!

Good on ya! Don't let the "secondary" crowd fool ya! IMHO its not all its cracked up to be anyway. Welcome to the forum, may all your brews be tasty!

Congrats man! I'm in Gainesville too! You go to UF?

Check out Hoggetowne Ale Works on 34th and University. If you're going away from campus on University, go past 34th, and it will be on your right before you get to that little creek. Great place to get equipment, but their recipes/ingredients are a little steep.

I think the website is like hoggetowne.com or something. Google it and it'll come up.

Danny

Yup - sure do - I've been here for the past 4 years or so working toward a PhD. I only stopped in the Gainesville LHBS once before I bought my equipment. It's too bad to hear that their ingredients are on the more expensive side of things.

I started brewing in G-ville with the Hogtown brewers back in the late 1990's. Had to move back to Naples because I couldn't work my way through school up there making $8 per hour - and that was good back then. Lived in the student ghetto (I hear that the developers razed it) just behind the Purple Porpois (spelling?), "I did it on Porpois" I think the bumper stickers used to say, then moved to some apartments across the street from the IFAS cow pasture - that was a nicer place than the ghetto.

Anyway, I've gotten back into it over the last couple of weeks with a vengance and have three meads and two brews in the fermenters. The sparkling meads are what drew me in in the first place, and they are what convinced the wife to let me fill the upstairs and closets with brewing equipement this time. She's gonna hit the roof when the boxes of ageing beer start to add up, but once she has her first sparkling mead all should be well in the garden.

Good luck and good brewing