New from St. Louis, MO

[Jsmith82]

Hello Everyone,

I thought I would establish some roots here on your very informative forum.

I am definitely wet behind the ears with home brewing, but my first batch is fermenting in my basement now and I can tell already that I'm hooked. I was at one time a Sous Chef but now work in an office so getting back in the kitchen, getting creative and mischievous, it's really got me excited, not to mention I just flat out love good beer!

When it comes to a flavor profile, I am a complete hophead. Unique IPA / IIPA / PA concoctions would be my personal favorite; I can't get enough. There generally is a 4pack of Double Dog in the fridge at all times. I'm also very much in love with the flavor hint / aroma of citrus. Lagunitas is generally around the house making friends with the Double Dog, but Deadlift so far has really been a stand out for me.. My wife and I are flying back to Las Vegas this April (the place where I first had Deadlift.. Speaking of, if you ever get to Vegas, go to the New York New York, find a bar called Pour24. The have Deadlift on tap, DFH 60min IPA, a whole gang of great beers that poor suckers like myself can't get living in Missouri).. Back on subject, I plan on stocking up.. May have to buy an extra carry on bag .

Here's to new friends, new flavors, and a ton of hops.

Jsmith

 

[BierMuncher]

Welcome aboard.

 

[arturo7]

Welcome to HBT, Jsmith.

go Blues

 

[howiehandles]

Hello Everyone,

I thought I would establish some roots here on your very informative forum.

I am definitely wet behind the ears with home brewing, but my first batch is fermenting in my basement now and I can tell already that I'm hooked. I was at one time a Sous Chef but now work in an office so getting back in the kitchen, getting creative and mischievous, it's really got me excited, not to mention I just flat out love good beer!

When it comes to a flavor profile, I am a complete hophead. Unique IPA / IIPA / PA concoctions would be my personal favorite; I can't get enough. There generally is a 4pack of Double Dog in the fridge at all times. I'm also very much in love with the flavor hint / aroma of citrus. Lagunitas is generally around the house making friends with the Double Dog, but Deadlift so far has really been a stand out for me.. My wife and I are flying back to Las Vegas this April (the place where I first had Deadlift.. Speaking of, if you ever get to Vegas, go to the New York New York, find a bar called Pour24. The have Deadlift on tap, DFH 60min IPA, a whole gang of great beers that poor suckers like myself can't get living in Missouri).. Back on subject, I plan on stocking up.. May have to buy an extra carry on bag .

Here's to new friends, new flavors, and a ton of hops.

Jsmith

I come from a food background too, so this satisfies my need to create, as well as sense of making others happy (hopefully tipsy too) from my creations. But still waiting on first and second batches to ferment.

 

[Jsmith82]

Hey, How about that, a fellow St. Louis patron and a Blues fan!
I think this place is going to work out just fine!

We share the same city BierMuncher.. How long have you been brewing your own beer?

Howie, your new to this as well? What style did you go for your first session.. I feel kind of chicken, I went for a plain simple Pale using extract. All the reading I've been doing though over the past couple of weeks, once this batch leaves the chamber and moves on to aging in bottles, I'm going all grain for round 2.

 

[howiehandles]

Jsmith, I brewed a Wheat extract the first time, it has a couple of weeks to go in the bottle. Rather boring beer, but I wanted to get the whole process down, but also, with wheat, I'll be able to really branch out later, although I too want to do grain. Nothing wrong with being safe the first time, as its good to get down the fundamentals before you start investing more time and money. Once you get down the basics, then you can branch out. Sort of like cooking school, first you perfect all your basic cuts on carrots, and next you're making soup. Gotta start at the beginning.

My recent one is a Cru, which is a partial extract, a step up I guess, and I added chamomile. I'm really hoping it turns out. One of my favorite beers of all time is Celis White on tap, and I read that Pierre Celis said that his secret ingredient was chamomile. Good enough for me. Plus, I read that several people have used chamomile in a Cru.

My next, either the Blood Orange Weiss, the recipe was referenced on here, or possibly a stout. The blood orange is an extract recipe I believe, but that's fine, as it looked great. The stout, I'm definitely going to do all grain, but add some flavors to it. What, I don't know.

 

[Jsmith82]

Your Cru sounds awesome and to agree with you more, I would love to get a stout going myself; I had one from Left Hand the other day, their milk stout (click). So good; it was definitely smoother than I expected and I typically am not huge on stouts (snowy weather helps).

I remember reading on here somewhere about the Blood Orange Weiss, I'd be curious to hear how that turns out for you; it sounded really good. I've pretty much settled on an IPA for my next beer though I'd really like to go Imperial... Like you said though, crawl THEN walk so I keep talking myself out of it. Being a Citrus lover, definitely going to choose hops wisely, lots of. I thought it would be cool to include a little bit of pine / cedar in the dry hop to get a more earthy aroma.. Meh, we'll see. Maybe I'll end up with 5 gallons of grapefruit cedar water haha, hopefully not.

 

[InYerMouth]

Welcome!! There are some great homebrew clubs in your area if you havent found one already!!

 

[blksabbath]

Welcome aboard.
St. Louis is a great place for homebrewers. Make sure you check out the St. Louis Brews, Garage Brewers, and ESB's.

this board is a wealth of knowledge. I rarely post, but check in all the time.

Anyways, have fun and cheers
Dan g

 

[howiehandles]

Your Cru sounds awesome and to agree with you more, I would love to get a stout going myself; I had one from Left Hand the other day, their milk stout (click). So good; it was definitely smoother than I expected and I typically am not huge on stouts (snowy weather helps).

I remember reading on here somewhere about the Blood Orange Weiss, I'd be curious to hear how that turns out for you; it sounded really good. I've pretty much settled on an IPA for my next beer though I'd really like to go Imperial... Like you said though, crawl THEN walk so I keep talking myself out of it. Being a Citrus lover, definitely going to choose hops wisely, lots of. I thought it would be cool to include a little bit of pine / cedar in the dry hop to get a more earthy aroma.. Meh, we'll see. Maybe I'll end up with 5 gallons of grapefruit cedar water haha, hopefully not.

Yeah, I just had left hand too, and it was nice. I like stouts, but the stouts I like better are ones which don't taste entirely like coffee. I had some Oatmeal Stout from Mickey Finn's, a microbrewer by me, and it was really good. Little of that stout coffee flavor at the start, but smooth, and at least to me, there was a taste of vanilla. While I do like a Murphy's or Guinness from time to time, I want to brew a different stout. Saw some recipes for Mint Chocolate Stout, think that will be what my first stout will be.

Worse comes to worse, if you screw it up, just spill it out and start over. If anything I learn better by my failures than my successes.

 

[Jsmith82]

Howie, I chickened out and decided to go with a more simple recipe trying to further understand the process entirely.

I brewed the Orange Hefe instead

My CO2 lock on the bucket is bubbling like crazy! Really excited to get this in bottles and I feel WAY more confident chasing that IPA for my next go around..

 

[howiehandles]

Thats what I did too. I took the recipe for the Blood Orange Hefe, and substituted Mineolas. Couldn't find the blood oranges, and I like Mineolas, so I figured, why not?

Mine too started fermenting within hours. I'm very anxious to try it.

I'm also planning either an IPA, or a stout/porter. There was a couple of cool kits in the Northern Brewer catalog that I just received. One was a Bourbon Barrel Porter, and someone suggested putting Rum in there as a substitute, and another cool recipe for a Rye IPA, but I'd have to make the leap to all grain on that one.

Good luck, and let me know how your Hefe turns out.

 

[Jsmith82]

The Hefe turned out so good I forgot to snap the picture till I was half way through the first beer!

I also manned up and brewed an IPA, actually my own recipe. I'm getting a bubble per second right now in primary, 48 hours in.. Howie, I think i'm addicted .

How are yours coming along..

 

[howiehandles]

The Hefe turned out so good I forgot to snap the picture till I was half way through the first beer!

I also manned up and brewed an IPA, actually my own recipe. I'm getting a bubble per second right now in primary, 48 hours in.. Howie, I think i'm addicted .

How are yours coming along..

I hear ya. I bottled my Mineola Hefe, and my Cru with Chamomile last Sat. My next brews are a Rum Porter, and a RyePA, both partial extract kits, but a step up for me. I've gotta up my equipment, as I want to start experimenting. I figure that if I have 2 carboys, I can go conservative on one, and nuts with the other. I also really want to do a mint porter or stout.

I can't wait to sample my hefe and cru..Yours looks excellent. Drinking your own homebrew rocks, doesn't it? Even my basic wheat tastes excellent, if i saw so myself. lol

 

[Jsmith82]

It does Rock, like drinking alcoholic accomplishment! Grats on the completed Hefe, you'll have to let me know how your recipe alterations turned out. The IPA (named Lady Di after the lovely Mrs. Jsmith82) I have in primary right now, I used the same element from the BO Hefe, steeping grapefruit zest and fruit along with a handful of Cascade and Amarillo, swapping out DME types and amounts, hopping schedule, etc...

A friend of mine who joined me in brewing the Lady Di IPA is joining me Saturday for the next brew off, we're doing a small 2 gallon batch of a German Hefe utilizing some herbs from his own garden but we're also doing a 3 gallon batch of the DFH 120min IPA Clone just to get a little mad scientist (we hammered out our own extract version that we feel comfortable enough to move forward on... that and well, he split the grain bill with me so if we fail, I'm only out 30 bucks )

Loving the Rum Porter; how exactly will you introduce the rum to the recipe? I've read around that a lot of folks doing Bourbon porters soak oak chips in the liquor, then drop them in secondary for a week or so to get the barrel aged notes to accompany. Were you thinking something similar?

 

[lestershy]

Welcome!
It's good to see a few folks from the 'Lou on here.
I would absolutely agree that you should check out the homebrew clubs, STL Brews is always fun.

 

[Jsmith82]

Hey Lestershy! Noticed a lot of people on here are from STL, more than I imagined I would see. Heard a lot about the STL Brews; definitely going to check in on a get together this summer, get some opinions and meet some fellow brewers. I hope they treat the meetings like an addiction seminar haha, by this Saturday I'll have 5 under the belt from my first brew a little over a month ago and at the rate I'm going, those humid St Louis Summer nights are going to be accompanied by an ungodly amount of ice cold home brew and as long as I keep some Unfiltered Wheat Hefe around, Mrs Jsmith82 is all for it