Better late than never!

[Stauffbier]

I should have introduced myself a couple of weeks ago, but ended up crying wolf by asking for advise first.

So........ here goes..

Hola! My name is Mike. I live in El Paso, TX. I'm not sure what made me decide to start home brewing, because about 2 months ago I only had a beer every now and then. It must have been one of those epiphanies you get in the middle of the night. Now 2 months later.. I love beer! I've tried more craft beers in the last 2 months than I've had in my entire life prior.

I've bottled one batch (and drank half of it so far). I have to admit, it's a very good batch of beer. It was a Black Dog Amber Ale kit from midwest. I now have a German Christmas beer I came up with ready for bottling this weekend, a Belgian Wit I created with the help of an online calculator on it's 9th day in primary, and an Oktoberfest Lager also from midwest I put in the primary on 11-11-11.

I'm looking forward to getting set-up to keg as my next adventure... Just don't have the money yet. Oh yeah, I've discovered that this is a very expensive hobby, but I don't seem to care!

And that's my story...
Nice to meet you... all you other hop heads out there!

 

[RumRiverBrewer]

Welcome!

 

[RumRiverBrewer]

Kegging will save you time & $$ so do your homework and jump in!

 

[Stauffbier]

Kegging will save you time & $$ so do your homework and jump in!

I've been looking into it for a couple of days. I've looked on ebay, amazon, and craigslist for corny's. I found a few decent deals ($25 ea was cheapest, but you have to buy 5) I called my local coke distributor today, but they are strict about letting them go. I'll be saving my pennies for a few weeks to try and by at least one, if not a couple more......

 

[Whut]

Greetings Mike and welcome to the obsession. Read up on kegging first and like anything else that'll serve you well.

 

[jkq1206]

Once you understand kegging, it will save you time, however I don't think it saves you money. It's more equipment to buy, and then once you have it, you want better stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love that I keg now because I used to bottle for about a year, but there is a learning curve, and money to be spent. Also if i didnt start kegging, I probably never would have moved to 10gal batches either. I think I'm finally done spending money on my keg setup except for the drip tray, and the extra kegs and the ....

2 pieces of advice on starting to keg. 1) just do it. The best way to learn about it is hands on. The beer is completed by the time to keg rolls around so you REALLY need to do something wrong to mess up a batch. Such a low risk to the beer and hey, it's fun too 2) buy the equipment you want in the beginning. It will save you money in the long run. Specifically on faucets. I bought basic faucets and said "oh I'll buy perlichs when I'm not spending so much slready". I didn't actually upgrade until my friends broke all my tap handles, not counting all the spills and bad pours because the faucet was too too sticky to open/close all the way.

Get started on the kegging! You won't regret it. And your friends will love coming to your place for drinks more than they already do. (Even less driving!)

 

[Stauffbier]

Thanks everyone! I think I just scored a free used fridge to keep the kegs (and bottles, and lagers) in..