pearlheartgtr
Member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2014
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
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I've been lurking around the forums for a little while, trying to get my bearings and absorb some information, and it's a lot of information!
Recently, I decided to give homebrewing a try. I used to make mead and...rum (I don't think I have to go into the mechanics of that because I'm pretty sure some of you will know and I think talking about it is frowned upon here, as in most forums).
It's been several years since I've made mead, but it was a lot of fun. I always had a few gallon jugs bubbling at any given time. Threw together my own recipes (I am now kicking myself for not writing anything down since it was all on a whim of trying different flavor combinations). I will say that it was good enough that it was RTD at bottling. I also wish I held onto some to age and see how it would turn out after a while. You see, I used to be a medievalist and I literally bottled and brought it to events. 5 bottles didn't last more than a couple of hours.
The problem was, I didn't really drink it. I'm not a wine person, nor a liquor person. So, I'd spend all the time and money making this stuff for other people to enjoy. I also think I needed a break from the 4am knocks on the door of, "Your mead is coming out of the cabinets!" Or hearing gunshots in the middle of the night to find that my freshly bottled Root Beer mead went on to have a life of its own and blew the corks like a South Central drive by. One even put a hole in the ceiling of our newly renovated kitchen. I figure, why not make something that I would enjoy? And that is why I am here.
I'm looking to start small scale, 1 gallon batches, and maybe move up to 5 gallons. But I like the idea of doing small batches so I have different brews going (like the mead) and experiment while not wasting money on ingredients if it all goes south. So, right now, I'm going to start with a couple of 1 gallon recipe kits from Northern Brewer (they've done me good for all of my supplies), like Smashing Pumpkin Ale and American Wheat, to start. I need to get familiar with the ingredients (as I really know nothing about beer compared to most of you here and my favorite is Coor's Light -- so take that and run with it
).
I still have loads to learn. I learn best by doing and I think I'll be brewing a lot of beer for educational purposes.
Aside from the alcohol, I love smoking meat (pretty much, not a weekend goes by without something tasty on one of my smokers), making sausages, fermenting sauerkraut, curing bacon, and dabbling in cheesemaking. Oh, and my newest venture, making hot sauce.
Recently, I decided to give homebrewing a try. I used to make mead and...rum (I don't think I have to go into the mechanics of that because I'm pretty sure some of you will know and I think talking about it is frowned upon here, as in most forums).
It's been several years since I've made mead, but it was a lot of fun. I always had a few gallon jugs bubbling at any given time. Threw together my own recipes (I am now kicking myself for not writing anything down since it was all on a whim of trying different flavor combinations). I will say that it was good enough that it was RTD at bottling. I also wish I held onto some to age and see how it would turn out after a while. You see, I used to be a medievalist and I literally bottled and brought it to events. 5 bottles didn't last more than a couple of hours.
The problem was, I didn't really drink it. I'm not a wine person, nor a liquor person. So, I'd spend all the time and money making this stuff for other people to enjoy. I also think I needed a break from the 4am knocks on the door of, "Your mead is coming out of the cabinets!" Or hearing gunshots in the middle of the night to find that my freshly bottled Root Beer mead went on to have a life of its own and blew the corks like a South Central drive by. One even put a hole in the ceiling of our newly renovated kitchen. I figure, why not make something that I would enjoy? And that is why I am here.
I'm looking to start small scale, 1 gallon batches, and maybe move up to 5 gallons. But I like the idea of doing small batches so I have different brews going (like the mead) and experiment while not wasting money on ingredients if it all goes south. So, right now, I'm going to start with a couple of 1 gallon recipe kits from Northern Brewer (they've done me good for all of my supplies), like Smashing Pumpkin Ale and American Wheat, to start. I need to get familiar with the ingredients (as I really know nothing about beer compared to most of you here and my favorite is Coor's Light -- so take that and run with it
).I still have loads to learn. I learn best by doing and I think I'll be brewing a lot of beer for educational purposes.
Aside from the alcohol, I love smoking meat (pretty much, not a weekend goes by without something tasty on one of my smokers), making sausages, fermenting sauerkraut, curing bacon, and dabbling in cheesemaking. Oh, and my newest venture, making hot sauce.
