menschmaschine
Well-Known Member
... Because brewing is so cool! I've been lurking here for a few months and thought I would finally introduce myself. You guys seem pretty laid back compared to some non-brewing boards. I've been researching brewing for the last 6 months and slowly built my home brewery.
I'm kind of a "from scratch" and "all or nothing" type guy, so I dove right into an all-grain 3-tier keg system. Getting kegs was the hardest part, but once I got them I bought 3 Bayou Classic burners, built the platform (lumber), and installed all of the plumbing. I brewed my first batch a couple weeks ago... a Munich Helles and it is now nicely lagering in my Better Bottles (in chest freezer w/ temp control). I tasted a gravity sample recently and it tastes great! (Especially considering I made up the recipe myself... w/ the help of lots of research and brewing software.) The only glitch I ran into so far was losing about 2 gallons to my homemade hop taco on brew day. IMHO they don't work well with pellet hops! But 8 gallons of beer is still OK with me! Next I'm brewing a Marston's Pedigree clone because that was my favorite bitter when I lived in Great Britain a couple years ago (but I'm having a little trouble building the Burton Unions... just kidding).
I currently live about 3 miles from Dogfish Head Brewery and toured it for the first time on Saturday. It was cool, not spectacular, but cool nonetheless.
Cheers!
P.S. For anyone brewing 60 Minute clones, I noticed on a dry-erase board (for the employees) in the DFH brewery something like, "NEW- ferment 60 minute at 68 degrees." (If that makes a difference.)
I'm kind of a "from scratch" and "all or nothing" type guy, so I dove right into an all-grain 3-tier keg system. Getting kegs was the hardest part, but once I got them I bought 3 Bayou Classic burners, built the platform (lumber), and installed all of the plumbing. I brewed my first batch a couple weeks ago... a Munich Helles and it is now nicely lagering in my Better Bottles (in chest freezer w/ temp control). I tasted a gravity sample recently and it tastes great! (Especially considering I made up the recipe myself... w/ the help of lots of research and brewing software.) The only glitch I ran into so far was losing about 2 gallons to my homemade hop taco on brew day. IMHO they don't work well with pellet hops! But 8 gallons of beer is still OK with me! Next I'm brewing a Marston's Pedigree clone because that was my favorite bitter when I lived in Great Britain a couple years ago (but I'm having a little trouble building the Burton Unions... just kidding).
I currently live about 3 miles from Dogfish Head Brewery and toured it for the first time on Saturday. It was cool, not spectacular, but cool nonetheless.
Cheers!
P.S. For anyone brewing 60 Minute clones, I noticed on a dry-erase board (for the employees) in the DFH brewery something like, "NEW- ferment 60 minute at 68 degrees." (If that makes a difference.)
