I'm now in my third year of homebrewing and just stepped up to doing all grain this year, but let me back up for a minute... I had an interest in trying my hand at homebrewing for quite some time, but had trouble justifying the cost to get started. That all changed a few years ago when my brother bought me all of the equipment to get started for Christmas. Deluxe Brewer's Best kit, two cases of bombers, two cases of 12 ounce bottles and a BB Chocolate Milk Stout extract kit, which we promptly brewed before he went back home. That was the first and last kit I brewed where I followed the instructions. Brewed a few more kits but changed things, then got into making my own recipes and partial mashing via BIAB. My brew days got pretty intense towards the end of things, it was taking me roughly 8-9 hours plus clean-up and as a result, I didn't brew much last year.
For this past Christmas, my brother got me an Edelmetall Bru Burner and that kicked things off again. I promptly bought a 15 gallon Spike Brewing SS kettle, copper counterflow chiller, and a pair of coolers that I converted to mash tun and hot water tank. This move brought me into all-grain and the ability to brew 10-11 gallon batches. To my everlasting joy, it also brought my brew days down to 4-5 hours including clean-up.
I guess I should say a few words about myself aside from brewing... I'm a self-employed contractor (third generation family owned business). I've learned enough to literally build a house from clearing the ground to trimming out the interior. Matter of fact the house I'm living in now was built by myself and my father. Along the way I've also picked up learning locksmithing, welding, auto mechanics, auto body, photography, computer technology (built two computers and repaired two so far, plus built a couple websites), general electrical, and became a published author, to name a few things.
