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I'm thinking a couple pounds of munich, some dark (ca 90L) crystal and maybe some melanoiden in addition to a very small (.5 oz) amount of roasted barley. And a fairly low BU/GU ratio--maybe something like 1.050 with 20 IBUs. Any comments? Anyone tried to achieve something like this? (edit...

Jeebus, the sounds complicated. I just fill a big tub with iodophor and soak em a couple minutes, then let them drip dry in the dishwasher.

Travel, coaching soccer, work...just all got in the way. Luckily I had a good stack of HB built up but I suspect it'll be gone by the time the robust porter I brewed yesterday is ready to go. Nice to be back on the brewing wagon.

Perhaps you might want to consider brewing styles that improve with age: many Belgian ales, barley wines, etc. They are trickier styles to master, though.

What Flyguy said. TO elaborate--some ingredients (and therefore some beer styles) really require mashing, so they can only be porperly brewed PM or AG. Plus, it's fun, you get some more toys and steps to play with, and it brings your per-batch ingredient cost down pretty significantly.

Going AG is the major thing. As far as yeast, reusing yeast really isn't very difficult or time-consuming, and it can save you quite a bit if you're using liquid yeast. Also, there are some very high quality dried yeasts on the market. I absolutely do not hesitate to us Safale 05 or...

To clarify, what I meant is that I think in people's minds, the week begins on Monday. We call Saturday and Sunday the weekend, after all. When A person says "The week of (date)" it seems like the date that they cite is pretty-much always a Monday. etc.

:off: I'm curious--what part of the world are you (originally) from? The idea that the week begins on Sunday always seems very odd to me, in practice. (And FWIW, I am a church every Sunday person.) De facto, it seems that everyone regards Monday as the first day of the week.

Are you asking me? To clarify, what I meant is that the local beer is generally going to be the best and the best bargain, if we're talking about a place with a wide variety of quality beers. So, if you live in the USA, USA beers are probably your best bet overall. If you live in Belgium, then...

If we're talking about the best beer available in the USA (and if price is part of the equation), then clearly the USA wins: there is better beer, more reasonably priced available from here than from elsewhere. Of course, the same is probably true in Germany, in England, in Belgium, etc.

I'm one of those one beer a night guys--sometimes two. Weekends are about the same. I have a fairly active lifestyle for a 43 year old--my beer intake has definitely gone up a bit since I started homebrewing, but my weight has not. I also brew almost exclusively "moderate" alcohol beers...

I agree about a wheat beer--maybe more like an American Wheat so people won't freak about the cloudiness. In general, it's very hard to get dedicated BMC drinkers to drink anything else, if it were me, I'd weant to think long and hard about why I'd even want to try it. I'd make something you...

I use both. I like the universal stoppers for putting an airlock on a carboy: I think they seal better. I use the rubber caps for siphoning: I just sanitize it with the racking cane already inserted--that way, I harldy have to touch any of it at all once it comes out of the iodophor solution.

I think WLP001, Wyeast 1056, or safale 05 (formerly US 56). I think that's what most "American wheats" use, and that especially sounds like the best choice for what you're going for. I just did a Bell's Oberon clone for summer quaffing--I used safale 05.

I would say a month, no problem, in a well-sealed bucket. Longer would be OK in a carboy. Depending on the beer, there may be little use for a secondary if it's been three weeks or more.

1214 is a great all-purpose Belgian strain. It is allegedly the Chimay strain. I've made Saisons and Tripels from it with great results. Ferment it a little on the warm side for a Saison if you like.

Yes--hops flavor is mostly extracted in boil times of about 10-20 minutes. If the boil time is a little more or less, you'll get some flavor, but mostly bitterness (for longer boil times) or aroma (for shorter boil times). An ounce is a fairly standard amount for aroma or dry hopping. You can...

Sounds very good. I just bottled a very similar APA. Only difference was using a little less Vienna and using Columbus for bittering, Columbus + Cascade for flavor, and Cascade for aroma and dryhopping. I'm looking forward to it.

One thing I do to keep costs down and keep life simpler is freely substitute hops varieties, especially bittering hops. You can buy a pound of some good bittering variety like Columbus or Magnum or Northern Brewer (it'll really be more like 1.5 lbs) from Hops Direct and store it in ziplock bags...