Hi from Erwin, Nc

[RagingBull]

Hi all, from beautiful Erwin, NC deep in the middle of nowhere and the capital of absolutely nothing to do. My friends call me Bull, long story short, got the nickname from an incident in a biker bar many years ago! Little about me, I come from a long line of WV Appalachian Moonshiners, joined the Navy at 17 to see the world but mostly to avoid working in the coal mines. Married Carolina girl and eventually ended up here in Erwin. Don't know the first thing about brewing, but having spent 21 years in the Navy I think I know quite a bit about consuming beer! Anyhow, the wife bought me a (oh no!) mr Beer for my birthday. It came with three kits, Mexican Cerveza, Oktoberfest and grand bohemian Czech pilsner. Of the three I probably didn't care much for the Cerveza so I figured I'd start with that in case I screwed it up it wouldn't matter as much. I followed the instructions to the letter and by the end of the day had those little teasties happily gorging themselves and bubbling away. While it was fermenting I started studying and hitting the forums and quickly learned that the one week mr beer fermenting time would yield drinkable beer, not really good beer, so o kept my first batch in the keg for 2.5 weeks. I tasted the beer before I bottled it, and to my surprise, it tasted really good, although flat. Bottled the beer according to instructions an put it away in the utility room to condition. At two weeks i'm going to take out one bottle and put it in the fridge for a week, the try it out. Then again at three, and if everything goes well the rest at four or later. I now have the Oktoberfest fermenting and based on what I've learned on this and other forums, I think I'll leave it in the fermented for three weeks before bottling. Looking forward to getting to know y'all. I know there isn't supposed to be such a thing as a stupid question, but I'll probably test that theory to the limit. If I get out of hand, just give me a dog biscuit and a home brew and send me to my crate.
Thanks,
Bull from beautiful Erwin, NC

 

[2BeerSpeer]

Welcome to the cult....I'm in Mt. Airy NC, if I can ever be of assistance let me know. I can tell you the faster you enter comps and get feedback the quicker your brew will improve.brew on....

 

[RagingBull]

Yeah, my wife says she's created a monster (and lost her sewing room already)! I'm hooked alread. Already I'm thinking about the next brews. My local (relative term) brew store American Brewmaster in Raleigh has been a big help!

 

[ncweasel]

welcome RagingBull. once you are hooked it will consume your life. I am always thinking about, reading about, brewing or drinking homebrew. I"m in Clayton.

 

[RagingBull]

Yep, I think I know what you mean! Clayton's only about 30 miles from Erwin I think.

 

[germanywx]

We need to all meet up for a WNC homebrew meet-n-greet-n-drink.

 

[2BeerSpeer]

We need to all meet up for a WNC homebrew meet-n-greet-n-drink.

When is that?

 

[germanywx]

Nothing organized yet... I'm just saying we should. Some Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

When I lived in Mississippi, a big group of people would bring 3-4 bottles each of their homebrew (and/or regional beer we couldn't buy locally), and we'd all have small glasses and sample each others' beer. It was a lot of fun and there was lots of good talking happening.

I posted somewhere else, but I'll say it here. I have a large yard and a very nice porch that would be great for doing something like this. Or, we could see if a local restaurant or bar would let us set up in there to do it. Might be better in the colder months to do that.

 

[RagingBull]

We need to all meet up for a WNC homebrew meet-n-greet-n-drink.

Sounds like a plan. Maybe when the snow melts! BTW, how much snow did you get (if any) . I had to scrape ice off the window this morning, took me forever to find the scraper.

 

[germanywx]

In north Asheville (Weaverville area), they got about 2". I live in west Asheville and we got nothing here. Close to the TN boarder, in the thick of the mountains, they got 2 feet. Supposed to be in the mid-60s this weekend.