Getting back into it

[dickyB]

I started brewing in 2008 for fun with my girlfriend and we brewed a lot for about a year. After a few unfortunate events I shelved my equipment and talked often about getting it back out and making beer, but never did until recently. As with most new brewers, I read and researched a lot then began brewing from kits and then recipes online and in my LHBS. Recently a friend started asking me a bunch of questions about brewing and we decided to dust off the equipment and go for it. We brewed an Imperial IPA he picked out and had fun brewing it together and enjoying some beverages. Well that ignited my passion for homebrewing again and I decided it was to get back into it. Another person I know locally who has been brewing for a long time had invited me to come to his brew days several times but I never made it. When I told him about finally brewing, he invited me up to brew his award winning Oktoberfest and I jumped at the opportunity. Soon after I found an all-grain setup on craigslist and snagged it. Last weekend I brewed my first all grain and it was a Chocolate Cherry Stout. We bottled the IPA this past Monday and my gravity calculations put it at 8.1%. In a week and a half, I'm going back to that friend's to brew an Imperial Pumpkin Brown ale for this fall.
As luck would have it, a friend was selling a small freezer chest for $20 that I couldn't pass up. I snagged that, a Ranco temperature controller and wired it up today so now I can control fermentation. So we've got a mini brewery set up so I better stick with it now! Decided after so many google searches bringing me here that I may as well join the community and attempt to contribute. Looking forward to learning from you all.

I try to keep my brewing stuff updated with pics for anyone interested at
http://starboardbrew.wordpress.com/

 

[BrewerBear]

Welcome back to the addiction and the forum.

 

[dickyB]

Thank you! Sorry for the wall of text. It didn't seem so long when i was writing it