brthrbobby
Member
Hi all,
I have been in this site for the better part of a year but never posted. I have gotten my base recipes here and adapted them a few times for what I was looking for. Mostly the Centenial blonde by BeirMuncher and the Orange Honey Hefe by DubbelDach.
I started out making mead because I liked the history of it and it is not common to see. I have had a couple commercial meads that were very tasty decided to give it a try. I made a couple batches and when I tried to drink one a few months later I decided mead making was not for me. I still have several gallons almost a year later that I am hesitant to even open because they were that bad.
And so I turned to beer. I knew nothing of mashing and sparging and had no desire to know before. But the aging time was much more palitable to me. So I started off with the Centenial Blonde to the letter. I had a couple three gallon stock pots on my stove and attempted to mash like I was making a giant pot of oatmeal. Needless to say my temperatures were all over the place and not much sugar got converted at the right place. I "Sparged" with a colander and boiled my 2 gallons of wort with a lot of top up water in three separate pots.
That beer tasted good, but had I remembered to take gravity reading I would have known there was probably 1% alcohol in it. I took it to a party where everyone was polite but no on seemed to be affected by it including me. So to fix this I quietly put a bottle of Everclear in it and the party picked up nicely.
Since that mishap I have had several great beers based on the two recipes noted above. I am a tinkerer by nature and so beer making appeals much better to me that the wine and mead. I have a large chest freezer I use for fermenting and a smaller one that I will be making into a party keezer. I have recently been studying all these electric, semi-automated brew builds and I think that will be my next major project.
Thanks to all that have gotten me started with recipes, debates on technique and gear, and all the tech-heads that are willing to help on projects not their own.
Bobby
I have been in this site for the better part of a year but never posted. I have gotten my base recipes here and adapted them a few times for what I was looking for. Mostly the Centenial blonde by BeirMuncher and the Orange Honey Hefe by DubbelDach.
I started out making mead because I liked the history of it and it is not common to see. I have had a couple commercial meads that were very tasty decided to give it a try. I made a couple batches and when I tried to drink one a few months later I decided mead making was not for me. I still have several gallons almost a year later that I am hesitant to even open because they were that bad.
And so I turned to beer. I knew nothing of mashing and sparging and had no desire to know before. But the aging time was much more palitable to me. So I started off with the Centenial Blonde to the letter. I had a couple three gallon stock pots on my stove and attempted to mash like I was making a giant pot of oatmeal. Needless to say my temperatures were all over the place and not much sugar got converted at the right place. I "Sparged" with a colander and boiled my 2 gallons of wort with a lot of top up water in three separate pots.
That beer tasted good, but had I remembered to take gravity reading I would have known there was probably 1% alcohol in it. I took it to a party where everyone was polite but no on seemed to be affected by it including me. So to fix this I quietly put a bottle of Everclear in it and the party picked up nicely.
Since that mishap I have had several great beers based on the two recipes noted above. I am a tinkerer by nature and so beer making appeals much better to me that the wine and mead. I have a large chest freezer I use for fermenting and a smaller one that I will be making into a party keezer. I have recently been studying all these electric, semi-automated brew builds and I think that will be my next major project.
Thanks to all that have gotten me started with recipes, debates on technique and gear, and all the tech-heads that are willing to help on projects not their own.
Bobby
