Hello from Fremont, CA

[phinch]

Hey Everyone,

I've been dabbling with really small batches of brewing for about a year or two. with long periods of not brewing anything in between.

My first attempt at homebrew was fermenting strawberries in a spagetti sauce jar with bread yeast. about as tasty as it sounds.

Next I made ginger mead in a mayonaise jar, and bottled it in lemonade swing top bottles. not bad, but not good either

Then I made apple cider with crushed apples and trader joes cider. with champagne yeast in a carlo rossi wine jug. each bottle tastes better the longer I wait to drink.

Right now I have one gallon of apple cider and a gallon and a half of pear cider brewing made from fruit run through a juicer. I used redstar champagne yeast again.

on the second day of fermentation, two of my three bottles clogged the fermentation locks and blew kraussen everywhere.

I cleaned and checked the bottles over the next day, and now it seems to be behaving.

I'm a little worried about the smell, but after reading on these forums about a sulfur-ish smell being normal, I feel a bit better.

anyways. thanks for reading my babbling introduction.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

Welcome aboard! I'm way over here on the other side of... 880. Have you basically just fermented cider/wine type things? Have you done any beer? Good to see another Bay Area-er around here...

 

[phinch]

I haven't done any beer yet. my runs have all been pretty small with barebones equipment.
my largest carboy is only 4 liters, so I like to make things in small batches.
It seems like beer is more time consuming, so it would make more sense to brew at least 5 gallons at a time.

Nice to meet you.