Hello from West By God Virginia!!!

[omegabunny]

Hello. I have been reading several brewing forums for a while now and decided to finally join some. I have never brewed before but Have been wanting to get started for a couple years. Today I was ordering a turkey fryer for Christmas and while I was looking at fryer kits none really jumped out at me. I started looking at burners and stockpots and came across a Bayou Classic 10 gallon stockpot with spigot and thought I might as well spend the extra money and buy this pot that can later be used as a brew kettle or mash tun. (I hope it was a good buy :/) I also grabbed a Bayou Class SP10 burner, false bottom for the stock pot and spigot filter screen.

Next up is the rest of the kit...maybe for Christmas.

Now a little about my beer drinking/tasting/expertise:

....

I like beer.

I really don't know a lot about tasting beer. I like drinking it and know what styles/brands I prefer but that's about it. I try to remember to taste my beer but I usually end up just drinking it so that's something I want to work on. My beer of choice right now is Anchor Steam and I find myself picking that up every time I go to get beer. I also love stouts/oatmeal stouts and cannot wait to try to brew those. I live in a small area so its hard for me to get a lot of different types of craft beers but I try to get a bottle or two of something new when I go to the store or try a new beer if its on tap at a restaurant.

I think thats about it. I hope to learn a lot from the forums!

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the group, it's a rather addicitive process, brewing.

 

[TimelessCynic]

My beer of choice right now is Anchor Steam and I find myself picking that up every time I go to get beer.

After 10 batches and half a year of brewing your beer will knock the pants off of anchor steam

 

[omegabunny]

Thanks for the welcome. I hope to start brewing right after christmas if my wife gets me some equipment. I think I will try a couple extract brews before moving to all-grain but I have a habit of getting excited and jumping the gun on things so we'll see.

I think I know the basics since I've watched about a thousand videos and read countless posts. I'llwknow for sure when I do it lol.

 

[unionrdr]

I'm sure many will agree that getting a few extract brews under your belt first is a good idea. Get the basic process down before moving on. I still have a lot of realatives down home.

 

[TimelessCynic]

I did 3 batches then went to AG. It was a good transition and gave me time to brew and ferment while purchasing the items to build my setup.

 

[dangerbrew]

hey omegabunny! Welcome!

I'm a WV brewer myself, living in Morgantown. I'm actually the president of the Fairmont Homebrewers Club in Fairmont, WV. Where are you located? I can possibly try and get you in contact with some local brewers who can give you some good advice while getting started - I know homebrewers all over the state, and many of the professional brewers on a personal basis as well.

 

[omegabunny]

I live in Keyser over in the eastern panhandle so not too far from morgantown. We actually come to Morgantown a couple times a month since my brother-in-law lives out there and we have WVU Football season tickets (glad this season is over)

I have the Queen city homebrew closeby in Cumberland MD and follow them in Facebook. They have a good many events/get togethers but they always seem to fall on days I have have something to do.

 

[dangerbrew]

I live in Keyser over in the eastern panhandle so not too far from morgantown. We actually come to Morgantown a couple times a month since my brother-in-law lives out there and we have WVU Football season tickets (glad this season is over)

I have the Queen city homebrew closeby in Cumberland MD and follow them in Facebook. They have a good many events/get togethers but they always seem to fall on days I have have something to do.

Yeah, no joke about this football season... I just decide not to ever get my hopes up so I'm pleasantly surprised when they win.

If you're in Morgantown, you should stop by sometime when I'm around in the evenings. I live in Westover. Just PM me and you can come by and have a few brews off the kegerator!

Queen City is a good club. I know Matt Marlowe and Hutch and all those guys. We do a "tri-city" competition in February called the Coal Country Brewers Cup in Accident, MD every year between Fairmont, Morgantown, and Cumberland. This year it is Saturday, February 8th. Queen City should have the info if you want to attend. Entry fee is $5 and it is BJCP sanctioned. We'll all be there.

 

[omegabunny]

I am hoping for a better season next year but I'm not hilding my breath. I knkw Holgersen is a good coach so I'm willing to give him one more season since its hard to bounce back when you lose as much talent as we did last year. If not I'm all for firing him.

I'll hit you up next time I'm in town and have some time. As of right now I dont have snything planned for the 8th and its after the holidays so I won't be nearly as busy. Can you come even if you are not competing? Do they have tastings? If would be cool to try some different homebrews.

Thanks for all the info.

Also, do you have any recommendations for a nice starter kit? Preferably a kit with a primary and secondary?

Ease disrefard any typos I'm on my phone.

 

[Jayhem]

Welcome! I'm in VA and have family in PA about 45 min north of Morgantown I just visited for Thanksgiving. I just drove past your area via I-68 on Sunday.

This is an addicting hobby. My only regret is that I didn't find out about this when I was in my 20's! Actually that might be a good thing!

 

[omegabunny]

I know exactly what you mean. My regret so far with beer is that I waited so ling to start drinking craft beer. I'm 33 now and have been drinking or tryibg craft beer for 4 or 5 year's. I'd like to get to the point that I can brew a good beer that ages really well so I can drink it with my 5 month old (when hes old enough)

 

[dangerbrew]

I am hoping for a better season next year but I'm not hilding my breath. I knkw Holgersen is a good coach so I'm willing to give him one more season since its hard to bounce back when you lose as much talent as we did last year. If not I'm all for firing him.

I'll hit you up next time I'm in town and have some time. As of right now I dont have snything planned for the 8th and its after the holidays so I won't be nearly as busy. Can you come even if you are not competing? Do they have tastings? If would be cool to try some different homebrews.

Thanks for all the info.

Also, do you have any recommendations for a nice starter kit? Preferably a kit with a primary and secondary?

Ease disrefard any typos I'm on my phone.

Yeah, I'd give him one more season, but I'm not convinced it will do much good. If he ruins it, the riots will start soon after I'm sure and he'll be out. haha

For the 8th, you can definitely come if you don't have any homebrew to bring - just bring some food and some cool craft beer to share with everyone. We have a people's choice part of the competition where you can vote for your favorite beer that was entered - that's always fun.

As for a starter kit, something along these lines would be great:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit-1.html

Plus they're having a sale on everything through tonight at midnight - you can get 15% off with the code COLDTURKEY if you order today. Hope you get into brewing soon!

Btw, whenever you're in town patronize my buddy Bill's nanobrewery in town, Chestnut Brew Works! Here's the article about his brewery:
http://www.morgantownmag.com/morgantown/December-January-2014/A-Nanobrewery-in-Morgantown/