Hi from Northeast Arkansas

[gspot]

I'm Glenn in NEA, originally from Bham, Bama. Started brewing in 2000 and made about 60 batches until I took a break in 2005 (life, kids, real job, etc.). Just started again in Sept 2015 (been lurking for awhile). Amazed to find that secondaries are no longer recommended and that there's these strange new things called biab and batch sparging. But you CAN teach an old dog new tricks: I just made my third batch of this second round of homebrewing in my life and batch sparged and got the best efficiency I've ever gotten. That it'll be from now on, I think!

Before I took a break from brewing, I specialized in German beers due to being a Ph.D. candidate in German and having lived in Germany for several years (close to Duesseldorf). My Hausbier was always Duesseldorfer alt and/or Koelsch. I also brewed a lot of North German pilsners modeled on the Koenig Pils I drank all the time while living in Germany.

Now I'm a grouchy, crotchety old English teacher at a Junior High. Probably one of the reasons I started brewing again Although I've only made 3 batches of pale ale over the last three months since I restarted, I plan to get back into the German beers with a Rauchbier planned for November. I'm starting to crave one of my old alts again, as well. I would like to branch out a bit and brew some Belgians this time around.

Anyway, glad to be here. Have learned a lot of new stuff and/or refreshed my memory of old stuff quite a bit already. Prost!

 

[iijakii]

Welcome back. Try to stick with it this time, quitter.

Also my condolences for living in the South.

 

[Fedora]

Howdy and welcome aboard from NW Arkansas.

 

[Fedora]

And iiiiasjacckskiiii doesn't know what he's talking about. Beautiful place to live.

 

[Sammy86]

Welcome to the community and back to the obsession from a fellow teacher (social studies)!

 

[gspot]

LOL! Thanks for the welcome guys. Got a good laugh from that exchange!

@Fedora: Ssshhh. Geez, man, remember the mantra: "The South sucks. Woe is me. Why do I have to live in this ****hole?!" (If we're not careful, they'll start to catch on)

@Sammy86: good to see another warrior from the trenches that's a homebrewer! I'd venture to guess there are a few more of us running around here.

@iijakii: clearly you're an instigator

 

[d3track]

Aren't the "Basic Brewing" guys in NE AR?

 

[lumpher]

Welcome back to the lifestyle, from another great guy in the South . We don't need another damn Yankee.

 

[Sammy86]

@Sammy86: good to see another warrior from the trenches that's a homebrewer! I'd venture to guess there are a few more of us running around here.b.

There certainly are...from what I've seen a lot of high school and college professors...not a lot of middle school folks like myself (this year I'm back to seventh grade).

At the school I worked at previously there was a homebrew club among the teachers...great group of guys and I got some nice hand-me-downs from them as well.

 

[gspot]

Aren't the "Basic Brewing" guys in NE AR?

I'm not sure. I heard of a small group trying to organize a couple years ago before I started brewing again. I was on their email list but haven't received anything in quite some time. I've been meaning to check into that again now that I actually have beer to contribute. I do know that the closest lbhs is two hours away which is a bummer. And we're a dry county which is an even bigger bummer although the county line is a mere 10 min drive and you can satisfy any vice you have in nearby Memphis.

 

[gspot]

Welcome back to the lifestyle, from another great guy in the South . We don't need another damn Yankee.

Dude, you better stay away from Atlanta and Florida then

 

[lumpher]

i know that's the truth. believe it or not, we have a forum on here about northerners in the south:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=71400

 

[gspot]

There certainly are...from what I've seen a lot of high school and college professors...not a lot of middle school folks like myself (this year I'm back to seventh grade).

At the school I worked at previously there was a homebrew club among the teachers...great group of guys and I got some nice hand-me-downs from them as well.

Oh yeah, I feel ya--I'm all 8th grade all the time, although I've done 7th and 9th too. I do believe a work-related hb club might be just the ticket (taking all the necessary precautions of being in the Bible belt in a dry county and working with minors, of course).

 

[Sammy86]

Oh yeah, I feel ya--I'm all 8th grade all the time, although I've done 7th and 9th too. I do believe a work-related hb club might be just the ticket (taking all the necessary precautions of being in the Bible belt in a dry county and working with minors, of course).

Not a lot of people knew about it...I had no idea until I mentioned it to one of the teachers that I was brewing the upcoming weekend that I found out about it...it was like a secret society LoL

 

[Fedora]

Haha! Secret teacher's homebrew club. That's awesome.

 

[gspot]

That IS awesome! Unfortunately I'm not to that point yet where I've told ANYONE at my current job about my hobby. Not that I haven't enjoyed a commercial brew in a restaurant with a few of them, but that's something else entirely. Maybe one day...