That hobby didn't do ANYTHING for me.
Newb(ish) all grain brewer from Katy, Texas checking in.
So, the story goes like this.
My neighbor, whom I've lived next door to for about 5 years, is my all grain brewing buddy. He (Henry) tried to introduce me to r/c airlplanes a couple of years ago, but I (Jerry) realized I can't drink 2 stroke airplane fuel like I can home brew.
What I'm saying is, he brought me into a hobby that he's been dabbling in for over 30 years and I thought flying was cool, but not enough to wait by the mailbox once a month, waiting anxiously for each month's Model Aviation magazine to arrive. Plane/radio going on craigslist soon
So... he asked me one day if I wanted to brew beer with him. Again, he'd been doing in the years before I became his neighbor, and he had equipment and experience.
We started with extracts for about 6 months and had 100% success with our 5 gallon batches. He was doing internet research about all grain brewing too. We both felt like the extracts all had a common taste/flavor of a somewhat 'burnt' taste, which we attributed to the process necessary to make an extract. Extreme heat? The kits we were getting from Midwestsupplies were all dark and almost 'burnt' tasting.
Now, don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with their kits, we were just developing a distaste for the carmelizey, tart, smokey flavor that all their kits had. I'm NOT knocking their product, just emphasizing that MY taste was changing regarding extract brewed beer. So...
I guess we did our first all grain back in Sept of 2011 and have had a BUNCH of tasty batches since. We talked about bigger batches, understanding that we'd need a bigger boat, I mean, Coleman cooler.... as well as a bigger brewpot.
I found a Coleman cooler that is big enough to work as our mash tun, and I also bought an 80 quart ss brewpot on ebay at the end of January. We've done a few 10 gallon batches since about Feb 1st.
I'd been purchasing just a few necessary home brew things over the last 6 months, eventually hoping to become self sufficient in home brewing. I really, really enjoy brewing with Henry, just want to brew sometimes when he's not really wanting to.
I now have EVERYTHING I need to brew 5 or 10 gallon brews except for the grain crusher. I can always use his barley crusher(when he doesn't want to brew, I can go over to his house and crush grain).
In fact, he and I bought 100 lbs of 2 row barley and wheat from a local craft brewing start-up (www.nolabelbrew.com), and have it stored in airtight containers at Henry's house. We split the cost, we split the beer.
We bought 100 lbs back in October, used it all up by February and bought another 100 lbs!
I did my first 'solo brew' on good Friday. Sort of like a flight instructor staying on the ground while his student takes off and flies the plane, solo...
I followed the exact steps from our previous successful 5 gallon wheat ale recipes and just went to bottles today, after 1 week in primary, 2nd week in secondary fermenter
Newb(ish) all grain brewer from Katy, Texas checking in.
So, the story goes like this.
My neighbor, whom I've lived next door to for about 5 years, is my all grain brewing buddy. He (Henry) tried to introduce me to r/c airlplanes a couple of years ago, but I (Jerry) realized I can't drink 2 stroke airplane fuel like I can home brew.
What I'm saying is, he brought me into a hobby that he's been dabbling in for over 30 years and I thought flying was cool, but not enough to wait by the mailbox once a month, waiting anxiously for each month's Model Aviation magazine to arrive. Plane/radio going on craigslist soon
So... he asked me one day if I wanted to brew beer with him. Again, he'd been doing in the years before I became his neighbor, and he had equipment and experience.
We started with extracts for about 6 months and had 100% success with our 5 gallon batches. He was doing internet research about all grain brewing too. We both felt like the extracts all had a common taste/flavor of a somewhat 'burnt' taste, which we attributed to the process necessary to make an extract. Extreme heat? The kits we were getting from Midwestsupplies were all dark and almost 'burnt' tasting.
Now, don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with their kits, we were just developing a distaste for the carmelizey, tart, smokey flavor that all their kits had. I'm NOT knocking their product, just emphasizing that MY taste was changing regarding extract brewed beer. So...
I guess we did our first all grain back in Sept of 2011 and have had a BUNCH of tasty batches since. We talked about bigger batches, understanding that we'd need a bigger boat, I mean, Coleman cooler.... as well as a bigger brewpot.
I found a Coleman cooler that is big enough to work as our mash tun, and I also bought an 80 quart ss brewpot on ebay at the end of January. We've done a few 10 gallon batches since about Feb 1st.
I'd been purchasing just a few necessary home brew things over the last 6 months, eventually hoping to become self sufficient in home brewing. I really, really enjoy brewing with Henry, just want to brew sometimes when he's not really wanting to.
I now have EVERYTHING I need to brew 5 or 10 gallon brews except for the grain crusher. I can always use his barley crusher(when he doesn't want to brew, I can go over to his house and crush grain).
In fact, he and I bought 100 lbs of 2 row barley and wheat from a local craft brewing start-up (www.nolabelbrew.com), and have it stored in airtight containers at Henry's house. We split the cost, we split the beer.
We bought 100 lbs back in October, used it all up by February and bought another 100 lbs!
I did my first 'solo brew' on good Friday. Sort of like a flight instructor staying on the ground while his student takes off and flies the plane, solo...
I followed the exact steps from our previous successful 5 gallon wheat ale recipes and just went to bottles today, after 1 week in primary, 2nd week in secondary fermenter
