Hello, I am just joining the forums to hopefully be able to find answers to some questions.
I started home brewing in 1993, after reading Miller's book. I only did extract beers for a long, long time with great success. I had very basic gear, buckets, glass carboys, a homemade immersion chiller, and bottling equipment.
After moving to Ohio in 2006, I tried making three partial mash beers and they all failed in the same way - off flavors that I hated, but could not identify and didn't know anyone who brewed locally to help me correct the issues.
Recently I got the bug to re-ignite my beer passions, and started looking around the area for brewing classes, hoping to find the secrets that eluded me, and get back to brewing. I stumbled upon Buckeye Brewcraft in the greater Columbus area, gave them a call, and had a great conversation with Dave the owner. I scheduled a basic brewing class and attended with my oldest son. In the course of the class and discussions afterwards, Dave talked me in to trying a very basic beer to start figuring things out. I chose a Mexican Lager (which might seem not too basic), but I also chose to use the Lutra Kveik yeast. Long story short, the beer turned out very well, I believe because I paid close attention to pH which I never had before (smacking forehead). I did end up with an infection in the beer but that's because I accidentally dumped my large Thermoworks dual port (un-sanitized) brewing thermometer into the cooling wort when I was water bathing the brew kettle. Sigh.
I also realized that the liquid yeast that I had on hand in the past, was probably long past it's useful life. So between pitching with unhealthy yeast and putting it in a very stressful, high pH/alkaline environment, the off-notes of molasses/brown sugar and other nasties, makes a lot of sense.
I have wanted to go all-grain for some time, and I've been accumulating gear slowly over time. I have a nice 8 gallon brew kettle, 2 x Fermenters Friend false bottom 15 gallon insulated coolers (lauter tun and hlt), and a Fast Ferment conical fermenter.
With this I brewed some whisky with great effect, and decided to bump up my game even more.
I just purchased an all-electric, 10 gallon 3-vessel, RIMS system with a second conical 5 gallon fermenter, and am planning my first 5 gallon batch all-grain beer, an American Brown Ale (Pete's Wicked Ale clone).
Yes, I just threw myself a BIG learning curve, so I staged a mock brew session with just water and ran through the process first and created a process checklist. I think I have tamped-down the nerves now, and am preparing to do another mock brew session with the electricity, and work the initial bugs out of the checklist.
I also just joined the SODZ home brew club in Columbus and hope to start competing once I get my new-to-me brewery sorted out.
That's my story.
I started home brewing in 1993, after reading Miller's book. I only did extract beers for a long, long time with great success. I had very basic gear, buckets, glass carboys, a homemade immersion chiller, and bottling equipment.
After moving to Ohio in 2006, I tried making three partial mash beers and they all failed in the same way - off flavors that I hated, but could not identify and didn't know anyone who brewed locally to help me correct the issues.
Recently I got the bug to re-ignite my beer passions, and started looking around the area for brewing classes, hoping to find the secrets that eluded me, and get back to brewing. I stumbled upon Buckeye Brewcraft in the greater Columbus area, gave them a call, and had a great conversation with Dave the owner. I scheduled a basic brewing class and attended with my oldest son. In the course of the class and discussions afterwards, Dave talked me in to trying a very basic beer to start figuring things out. I chose a Mexican Lager (which might seem not too basic), but I also chose to use the Lutra Kveik yeast. Long story short, the beer turned out very well, I believe because I paid close attention to pH which I never had before (smacking forehead). I did end up with an infection in the beer but that's because I accidentally dumped my large Thermoworks dual port (un-sanitized) brewing thermometer into the cooling wort when I was water bathing the brew kettle. Sigh.
I also realized that the liquid yeast that I had on hand in the past, was probably long past it's useful life. So between pitching with unhealthy yeast and putting it in a very stressful, high pH/alkaline environment, the off-notes of molasses/brown sugar and other nasties, makes a lot of sense.
I have wanted to go all-grain for some time, and I've been accumulating gear slowly over time. I have a nice 8 gallon brew kettle, 2 x Fermenters Friend false bottom 15 gallon insulated coolers (lauter tun and hlt), and a Fast Ferment conical fermenter.
With this I brewed some whisky with great effect, and decided to bump up my game even more.
I just purchased an all-electric, 10 gallon 3-vessel, RIMS system with a second conical 5 gallon fermenter, and am planning my first 5 gallon batch all-grain beer, an American Brown Ale (Pete's Wicked Ale clone).
Yes, I just threw myself a BIG learning curve, so I staged a mock brew session with just water and ran through the process first and created a process checklist. I think I have tamped-down the nerves now, and am preparing to do another mock brew session with the electricity, and work the initial bugs out of the checklist.
I also just joined the SODZ home brew club in Columbus and hope to start competing once I get my new-to-me brewery sorted out.
That's my story.
