darling
Member
Hi All
I've been brewing for a little over a year now (and at the same time stalking these forums). Before I began, I did about 5-6 months of research: Papazian, Palmer, Zainasheff, a very very very bad ebook I bought off amazon, BrewingTV videos (the original series), the Science of Brewing, numerous forums and online materials. In short, I chose sponging before sparging.
I knew from the beginning I wanted to go All Grain all the way. When we got to Romania (I am American, my wife is from Transylvania), the first thing I did was start looking for ingredients. This has been the biggest pain since day 1. Nearly every homebrew retailer in Europe is a distributor for the same company, and each carries a small portion of their catalog. (I visited them in Belgium before moving here and it is a beautiful thing to see.) So, if the ONE supplier in Romania doesn't have what I need, I can try and special order, or pay upwards of 50-60$ to have it shipped from Germany. Or drive there to personally pick up malt from small, private maltings. As fairy-tale wonderful as this sounds, it's just not worth the all-day trip across Romania, followed by the relatively quick (and decidedly less bumpy) route into Bavaria for 50kg of malt. The best way (as is the case with most things here) is to know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who makes that trip once a week.
Problems aside, the first batch was great, the second as well, and it's been steady progress ever since. I've been able to tweak my process into consistency, began treating my water (our city water is good, but totally devoid of minerals) and making the beers that I want to drink. Some things I do as a matter of principle (stretching out yeast as far as it will go being the number one most important thing I do), others as curious experimentation (Chili Pale Ale, Jasmine and Red Pepper Ale).
I'm here to share what I've learned and to learn from what you all have. So if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask; I will be asking as well.
Cheers
I've been brewing for a little over a year now (and at the same time stalking these forums). Before I began, I did about 5-6 months of research: Papazian, Palmer, Zainasheff, a very very very bad ebook I bought off amazon, BrewingTV videos (the original series), the Science of Brewing, numerous forums and online materials. In short, I chose sponging before sparging.
I knew from the beginning I wanted to go All Grain all the way. When we got to Romania (I am American, my wife is from Transylvania), the first thing I did was start looking for ingredients. This has been the biggest pain since day 1. Nearly every homebrew retailer in Europe is a distributor for the same company, and each carries a small portion of their catalog. (I visited them in Belgium before moving here and it is a beautiful thing to see.) So, if the ONE supplier in Romania doesn't have what I need, I can try and special order, or pay upwards of 50-60$ to have it shipped from Germany. Or drive there to personally pick up malt from small, private maltings. As fairy-tale wonderful as this sounds, it's just not worth the all-day trip across Romania, followed by the relatively quick (and decidedly less bumpy) route into Bavaria for 50kg of malt. The best way (as is the case with most things here) is to know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who makes that trip once a week.
Problems aside, the first batch was great, the second as well, and it's been steady progress ever since. I've been able to tweak my process into consistency, began treating my water (our city water is good, but totally devoid of minerals) and making the beers that I want to drink. Some things I do as a matter of principle (stretching out yeast as far as it will go being the number one most important thing I do), others as curious experimentation (Chili Pale Ale, Jasmine and Red Pepper Ale).
I'm here to share what I've learned and to learn from what you all have. So if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask; I will be asking as well.
Cheers
