Greetings from the Hawkeye State

[srkaeppler]

Hi All-

I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Steve and I live in Iowa. I am a fairly new brewer, but have really taken to the hobby. So far I have brewered mainly kits from Northern Brewer including their American Wheat, Hefeweizen, Winter Warmer, Victorian Pils and now a Scottish Heavy. I have also made Papazian's Gran Cru I have stuck mainly to extract brewing, but plan to move over into partial mash. I have also gotten into adding honey to my brews, at the advice of a meadmaker who has been consulting with our research group. I may do some meads, but will probably stick in beer. Overall, I just want to learn whatever I can!

In real life I am a lowly graduate student in physics. Hopefully I will graduate in 2 years or so.

Thanks all!

Steve

 

[BlackForestBrewery]

Hey Steve,

Welcome to the site. You are on your way! You can learn a lot about brewing here. Extract is where most brewers start out. It sounds like you have brewed some really nice beers so far.

Do you want to get into all grain brewing? It's really a lot easier than it seems. What kind of brews do you like the most?

If you want some easy stuff to make, try Ed's apfelwein. Takes only 15-20 minutes to make a 5 gallon batch, and the stuff is very very tasty.

 

[rodneypierce]

Steve, im also in Iowa. Cedar Rapids to be exact. You will love it here on this forum. TONS of info here!!!

 

[srkaeppler]

Blackforest - thanks for the note. All grain requires 4 things I do not have: money, space, time and equipment(also part of money). As much as I would like to do that someday or at least play with it, partial mashing seems more tenable for me at the moment. I do appreciate the comment though! Definitely something I will consider in the future.

Rodney, good to hear from someone up around cedar rapids! I am down in Iowa City, so just south of you. Just wondering, are there any good homebrew stores in the cedar rapids area? I know there is beer crazy out in Des Moines, but that is about as good as I have seen. It would be nice to have a place with a little more selection than what I can get at Hyvee. Ordering in is fine, but it would be nice to go somewhere semi local.

 

[rodneypierce]

no there isnt really. I usually order everything from Austin Home Brew, unless I need something in a pinch, then our Hyvee drug store on the corner of blariferry and center point rd usually has what im looking for. Other then that, nothing really that I know of.