Mike from Michigan

[Booyah!]

Greetings from Michigan.

My name is Mike. I bought all of our starter equipment about 18 months ago, thinking it would be a great hobby for my wife and I to do together, and it sat in our basement for a full year. Last September, we finally started brewing. It really is what I hoped it would be. Not too much time on any given day. Kind of spread out. Very fun along the way.

We're on our 4th brew now. Our first was a box set we bought from a local home brewing shop, and the next 3 were bought on Amazon. Just saying I haven't gotten experimental with ingredients. I just buy box sets and follow the directions.

I guess you could say we're both caught up in the IPA rage. I love my beer so bitter, it hates everything in the room. I'm joining this community to step it up a notch and begin working out ways to get my beer the way I like it. Bitter hops with no fruity taste.

I look forward to learning from this experienced community.

 

[bronc72]

Welcome Mike,
Brewing is a lot of fun.
There are quite a few of us on here from Michigan as well.

 

[Moose_MI]

Welcome Mike! Go Blue!

Cheers from the SW corner of the mitten. If you ever find yourself passing through on I94 please stop in for a beer!

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group, from Colorado

 

[verboten]

cheers!

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Welcome from West Michigan!

 

[Booyah!]

Thank you all for the welcome! I have so many questions about things I think I've done wrong and other things I want to try. I want to do a lot of searching here before I start a thread about some things that have been discussed 1000 times.

For example, kegging. I'm not asking the question here now in this intro thread. Just saying. I bought a 128oz keg, and this system came with next to no instructions. Do I fill it with beer after adding priming sugar just like bottles, cap it, and let it sit warm for a few weeks like bottled beer?

Again, I'm just throwing out a kind of thing I want to learn about.

@Cyclman, you're very kind. I hope you can undo some of the angst I've had toward Colorado since the days of Claude Lemieux and the Avalanche thugs of the 90's I haven't been able to shake. LOL

 

[jswillbrewforbeer]

Welcome from Muskegon!

 

[COMiamiFan]

Welcome from CO

 

[ncbrewer]

Welcome from NC.

 

[JB_Brewing2]

Welcome from the city of the maize 'n blue! (I'm with you about the Avs of the 90's.)

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Thugs?!? *cough, cough-- Bertuzzi!!*

 

[gunhaus]

Howdy

 

[rac3850]

Oops, originally wrote my intro as a response in Mike's thread.

Glad to be joining with so many other Michiganders.

Cheers!

 

[rlsturgill7]

Welcome from SE Mich. I've only made about 40 batches and not many for the last 5 years but now that I'm retired I plan on doing more brewing again.. Cheers!!

 

[mkopec1]

SE MI checking in too. I was big into this in the 90s brewed 100s. Then the wife came, then the kids, new house, the stuff got shelved in the corner of the basement. But recently my 18 yr old showed an interest in the stuff so I started it back up again. Its funny how this stuff advanced in just the last 25-30 yrs.

Internet....

 

[bracconiere]

I want to do a lot of searching here before I start a thread about some things that have been discussed 1000 times.

LOL, just learn the difference between a refractometer and a hydrometer, you'll do fine...

And Welcome!