Another n00b in San Diego!

[the_exbeeriment]

My name is Jeff Clarke and I am a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, stationed here in San Diego. About a week and a half ago, a buddy of mine was talking about his homebrew setup and the beer he has in his pipeline. I had never really thought about brewing my own beer before, but it got me to thinking ... and thinking ... and thinking. I haven't been able to think of anything else since!

After lurking here for about a week and reading the entire Mr. Beer thread, I realized that if I was going to do this, I should do it right. I'm not going to spend the money for a full setup without knowing what I am getting into. I am not going to get a Mr. Beer or a Beer Machine or any of the 2-2.5g mini-setups (why wase the time for only one case of beer?). I just need to make a full 5 gallon batch or two and see what I think about the process - an exbeeriment!

Well, the friend who got me thinking about brewing is out of town this week, so after asking around a bit, I found another buddy who has a 5g brew kit that he isn't using. He said that I could borrow it, so I plan on picking it up tomorrow and brewing my first batch this weekend. If I enjoy the process enough I'll probably talk to Santa (and SWMBO) about getting a kit of my own for Christmas!

I am already planning my first two batches! For my first batch I plan on making a HefeWeizen that I can share with my father-in-law, who doesn't like hoppier beer. I plan on calling it either Jefe's Weizen or Jeff's Hef. For the second one, I want to do something a lot hoppier, maybe comparable to Stone Arrogant Bastard or even Left Coast's Hop Juice. I figure to have the HefeWeizen bottled around Thanksgiving, and have the heavier stuff brewing that weekend.

Any advice is readily accepted!

-Jeff

 

[Aleforge]

Welcome to Homebrewing! I think a Hefeweizen is a good starter choice, you will get to drink it faster and you wont be using a secondary.

Are you going to order a kit or build one yourself, extract, partial or all grain?

 

[the_exbeeriment]

I plan on just going down to my LHBS and talking to them about what I want to do. They should have some ideas, advice, and all the ingredients I need (I'll probably do extract for the first couple at least). The friend who is loaning me his setup said that he went there and told them that he wanted to make a beer like Sam Adams, and they just grabbed the ingredients he needed and it turned out pretty good.