tjderrington
Active Member
Greetings fellow brewers. My name is Joe, I'm 32 and just got back into the sport of home brewing. I actually did my first brew back when I was in high school (Mr. Beer Kit) and during college did a couple more but lost interest when somehow all the beers ended up tasting a little bit like apple juice.
Recently, a friend got me interested in giving it another go round by inviting me to a home brew party. I'm amazed at how much more information is readily accessible now compared to 14 years ago. I got my old brewing partner back into the game as well and we have had many laughs over all the mistakes we made back when tried home brewing the first time. For example, noone mentioned that using sugar as opposed to malt led to that aforementioned apple taste. Noone told us you couldn't cap screw off bottles with much success (Although we figured that one out after saving Bud bottles for months and wasting much of another batch that tasted like apple sider anyway.) We never put the beer into a secondary and we always left it in the fermenter waaaay to long. (Sometimes as much as 6 weeks) Oh, and fermentation temp was never regulated either. Oh how far we have come!
About 4 weeks into my return I have a St. Arnold's Brown Ale Clone on tap in the kegerator an IPA clone in secondary and a St. Almost Christmas Ale fermenting. This weekend I plan on doing something with a little lower abv so I can take it with me tubing down the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels at the end of summer (in PET bottles ofcourse). I'm thinking a sessions ale or light pilsner of some sort.
Anyway, greetings and It feels great to finally have brewed a beer that tastes like beer and not apple juice at about half the price of a micro brew keg.
Cheers!
Recently, a friend got me interested in giving it another go round by inviting me to a home brew party. I'm amazed at how much more information is readily accessible now compared to 14 years ago. I got my old brewing partner back into the game as well and we have had many laughs over all the mistakes we made back when tried home brewing the first time. For example, noone mentioned that using sugar as opposed to malt led to that aforementioned apple taste. Noone told us you couldn't cap screw off bottles with much success (Although we figured that one out after saving Bud bottles for months and wasting much of another batch that tasted like apple sider anyway.) We never put the beer into a secondary and we always left it in the fermenter waaaay to long. (Sometimes as much as 6 weeks) Oh, and fermentation temp was never regulated either. Oh how far we have come!
About 4 weeks into my return I have a St. Arnold's Brown Ale Clone on tap in the kegerator an IPA clone in secondary and a St. Almost Christmas Ale fermenting. This weekend I plan on doing something with a little lower abv so I can take it with me tubing down the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels at the end of summer (in PET bottles ofcourse). I'm thinking a sessions ale or light pilsner of some sort.
Anyway, greetings and It feels great to finally have brewed a beer that tastes like beer and not apple juice at about half the price of a micro brew keg.
Cheers!
