Five months? Wow, addictions start fast.

[msayler]

So, I've been at the homebrew thing for a very brief time now, and I'm already in over my head. My folks moved from north Texas to Michigan in May, and while they were cleaning out their garage, my pops found some brewing stuff tucked away in the corner. Since he had used it once and forgotten about it, he gave it all to me, for the low price of getting it outta his way.

All in all, I got a big (32qt?) pot, a bottling bucket, a plastic fermenting bucket/lid, a capper, some caps, some gross-looking tubing (trashed), some gross looking leftover ingredients (trashed), a few each of one-piece and 3-piece airlocks, three books (Complete Joy, Homebrewer's Gold '96, a no-name generic how-to) and a busted bottling wand. A friend helped me do an all-grain brew later that month, and I've been hooked ever since.

I've upgraded to all-glass for my fermenting, converted a seldom-used chest freezer to a temperature controlled vessel, and made a pretty snazzy immersion chiller setup on the cheap... and I'm only on my third batch. I'm in trouble.

Glad to be here! :rockin:

 

[Qhrumphf]

Welcome!

And yep, the bug can bite fast.

Welcome to the additiction I mean obsession I mean hobby, and to the forum.

Cheers!

 

[Schecter]

Welcome.

Your setup sounds to be akin to what mine is. I envy you starting at this point. This forum and those books are an amazing start and may be all you ever need.

Cheers

 

[unionrdr]

Nothing like mining a lil free gold! Welcome to the cuckoo's nest!

 

[cubalz]

Trust me, The addiction will only get worse the deeper you go. Even after home brewing for well over 25 years, I am still fascinated by it and besides Harley's, it is all I ever talk about.....

It sounds like you are off to a solid start. Brew on!!!

 

[WrQth]

It takes hold quick, I've only be brewing since this past May and I've already built my own single tier stand, counter-flow chiller, stir plate, STC-1000 for fermentation chamber, and working on a control panel for the stand.

So far it has been as stressful as fun but well worth it when I crack open that first bottle of each batch to find I have made tasty beer (most of the credit goes to the yeast really).

 

[Homercidal]

What is holding you back? Most people are doing All Grain full boils by their 3rd batch!

JK, but yeah, it's addictive. Good thing there are no repercussions to allowing it to fully take over your life!

 

[msayler]

And yep, the bug can bite fast.

Welcome to the additiction I mean obsession I mean hobby, and to the forum.

I think the whole swarm got me.

Your setup sounds to be akin to what mine is. I envy you starting at this point. This forum and those books are an amazing start and may be all you ever need.

My first batch was a German hef that turned out less than optimal (it's mildly-off smell caused me to dub it "Fartenbrau"), so I dug in all available info sources to figure out what could have gone wrong. Read Joy cover to cover, then HowToBrew.com "cover to cover", then started in on HBT after that. I still haven't been able to think a question or problem that hasn't been addressed somewhere between these three things!

Nothing like mining a lil free gold! Welcome to the cuckoo's nest!

I'm not sure whether to thank him or blame him, yet! I'll probably try to ship him some good brew at some point as repayment for kicking me down the rabbit hole.

Trust me, The addiction will only get worse the deeper you go. Even after home brewing for well over 25 years, I am still fascinated by it and besides Harley's, it is all I ever talk about.....

It sounds like you are off to a solid start. Brew on!!!

It's already all I can talk about! I give it about 2 more weeks before my wife starts rolling her eyes and going elsewhere at parties.

It takes hold quick, I've only be brewing since this past May and I've already built my own single tier stand, counter-flow chiller, stir plate, STC-1000 for fermentation chamber, and working on a control panel for the stand.

So far it has been as stressful as fun but well worth it when I crack open that first bottle of each batch to find I have made tasty beer (most of the credit goes to the yeast really)

I looked in to getting a stir-plate going, but I put the brakes on for the moment - Texas has some really f'd up laws about owning/purchasing/selling Erlenmeyer flasks. When I started filling out the paperwork for getting one (Google "NAR-120" if you'd like to see it), my better half put the kibosh on that whole thing. Oh well, plenty of other things to spend my money on.

I also completely understand "stressful but fun" now. I have to remind myself to RDWHAHB pretty regularly.

What is holding you back? Most people are doing All Grain full boils by their 3rd batch!

JK, but yeah, it's addictive. Good thing there are no repercussions to allowing it to fully take over your life!

So far, I've done the all-grain German hef, an all-grain SMaSH IPA, and a extract-with-grain-steeping Belgian wit(ish). Up next will be an all grain porter of some kind, and something else wintery - choco stout maybe? Also looking forward to doing some lagering this spring.

Plans subject to change, void where prohibited, no checks.