Altayre
Member
Hello all, it's about time I introduce myself here on the boards, I've been lurking for a while now.
I never really liked beer at all growing up, my grandfather and father both brewed their own, grandfather brewed with the blue ribbon malt extract and my father did all grain.
Sadly I never really paid any attention to the process because, like I said I never liked beer. I really couldn't stand the taste of any mass produced beer because it either smelt or tasted like urine.. or both IMO. And consequently I never bothered with my Father's or Grandfather's beer.
One day my wife's uncle brought down some craft beer (I'm from Vermont, so we have a lot of that around) and he introduced me to the WONDERFUL world of craft brew. The first beer I ever liked was a Cream Stout, since then I've really only drank darker stout type beers.
I'm still learning all the terminology but I find I really don't care for anything 'pale' my beer has to be dark, roasty and chewy with a lot of flavor. The lightest I find I can drink really is a bock (now I can appreciate the lighter beers, but just don't really like to drink them if I can help it). Now I've moved to El Paso TX and have found that for some reason Mexicans (which are the VAST majority of people here don't like dark beer AT ALL
So I set out to start brewing my own beer.
I thought I would start with something 'simple' IE a hard cider, so I went down to my local wal mart and got a couple free buckets, ordered an airlock, rubber grommet, yeast, and yeast nutrient from midwest supplies. bought 5 gallons of cider (without the preservatives) and went to work.
I made a bag of mulling spices for cider and steeped them in a gallon of the cider for an hour in my crockpot at the low setting (not sure the temp) Tossed about 3lbs of brown sugar in, threw it all in the bucket (everything was sanitized with bleach) started the yeast ( was Red Star Premier Cuvée) in warm water and the yeast nutrient.
Like a good boy I waited 2 weeks before even opening the bucket, but when I did WHOA.. holy crap you could smell the 'kick' from the thing across the room, my wife was sitting on the couch in the living room and exclaimed "what the hell is that smell? I think I'm getting drunk just from smelling it" let me tell you.. it was fierce. Being the retard, scientist, explorer type I dipped a fully sanitized glass in and had at it ( more like it had it's way with me...) It was pretty damned good for being so new, so i stuck it in my secondary bucket and let it clear off for 2 more weeks, then stuck it in 3litre bottles (which there is only 1 left that I "lost") And I've found that I'm hooked, I need to brew.
I never really liked beer at all growing up, my grandfather and father both brewed their own, grandfather brewed with the blue ribbon malt extract and my father did all grain.
Sadly I never really paid any attention to the process because, like I said I never liked beer. I really couldn't stand the taste of any mass produced beer because it either smelt or tasted like urine.. or both IMO. And consequently I never bothered with my Father's or Grandfather's beer.
One day my wife's uncle brought down some craft beer (I'm from Vermont, so we have a lot of that around) and he introduced me to the WONDERFUL world of craft brew. The first beer I ever liked was a Cream Stout, since then I've really only drank darker stout type beers.
I'm still learning all the terminology but I find I really don't care for anything 'pale' my beer has to be dark, roasty and chewy with a lot of flavor. The lightest I find I can drink really is a bock (now I can appreciate the lighter beers, but just don't really like to drink them if I can help it). Now I've moved to El Paso TX and have found that for some reason Mexicans (which are the VAST majority of people here don't like dark beer AT ALL
So I set out to start brewing my own beer. I thought I would start with something 'simple' IE a hard cider, so I went down to my local wal mart and got a couple free buckets, ordered an airlock, rubber grommet, yeast, and yeast nutrient from midwest supplies. bought 5 gallons of cider (without the preservatives) and went to work.
I made a bag of mulling spices for cider and steeped them in a gallon of the cider for an hour in my crockpot at the low setting (not sure the temp) Tossed about 3lbs of brown sugar in, threw it all in the bucket (everything was sanitized with bleach) started the yeast ( was Red Star Premier Cuvée) in warm water and the yeast nutrient.
Like a good boy I waited 2 weeks before even opening the bucket, but when I did WHOA.. holy crap you could smell the 'kick' from the thing across the room, my wife was sitting on the couch in the living room and exclaimed "what the hell is that smell? I think I'm getting drunk just from smelling it" let me tell you.. it was fierce. Being the retard, scientist, explorer type I dipped a fully sanitized glass in and had at it ( more like it had it's way with me...) It was pretty damned good for being so new, so i stuck it in my secondary bucket and let it clear off for 2 more weeks, then stuck it in 3litre bottles (which there is only 1 left that I "lost") And I've found that I'm hooked, I need to brew.
