Guyotron
Member
Greetings... I used to brew a metric assload... all of the time. It's all I drank. It's all I took camping, or to parties, or friends houses, or whatever. In college, I couldn't afford to drink as much as I wanted to, so homebrewing filled that niche! At one time, folks might have not known my name... but they'd greet me with 'hey, you're the brewer!'.
Back then, I bought home brew ingredients from Col. John Canaday in Boulder (out of his garage and kitchen), and I ran into Charlie Papazian regularly. I bought Zymurgy issue 2.
Back when the internet was text-based, the only reference to my name was a blue ribbon for a wheat beer entered in a national homebrew competition. Coors approached me over the recipe, but someone 'higher up' thought craft brews were a gimmick, and they passed (the irony is: I HATE Wiezens!).
I attended the Great American Beer Tasting Festivals when there were less than 150 beers to taste. I met Michael Jackson a time or two (R.I.P.)
I brewed a bunch, drank a bunch, entered and won a lot of competitions... and then life intervened. I got married, had kids, things got... complicated. It was easier to buy imported beer, etc., etc., etc.
My kids are grown. The last one is in college and much of my brewing supplies are collecting dust out in the shed. I'm down to the last few bottles of 20 year old mead. For the last couple of years I've been wanting to get back into it. A while ago I built another kegerator (I had one 'back in the day' - kegging homebrew is the ONLY way to go), and drank imports... but I put space for a second faucet with room for a corny next to my 50 litre keg o' something from overseas.
Well, this weekend I dusted off my stuff, scouted out local homebrew shops and was absolutely blown away at what stuff costs now. Back then, homebrew was less than half the price of commercial imports. Nowadays, you're lucky to break even, it appears. But... I still want to brew. I have eight corny kegs, a few 'standard' old-school kegs with the hole for the wooden bung in the side, several glass carboys.... and lots of old, dry rotted tubing, corks, etc.
One other thing I've noticed. I know NOTHING about homebrewing any more. Gelatin for clarity? Never heard of it back then. Irish moss, sure! Gelatin? Now way. Grains in a bag...steeped, not boiled? Gah! That's all news to me. Forums for homebrewing? Internet sites with 6K+ recipes??? Never imagined such a thing!!!
So... an old-school brewer comes hat-in-hand seeking the knowledge to brew, once again.
Thanks for having me.
Guyotron
Back then, I bought home brew ingredients from Col. John Canaday in Boulder (out of his garage and kitchen), and I ran into Charlie Papazian regularly. I bought Zymurgy issue 2.
Back when the internet was text-based, the only reference to my name was a blue ribbon for a wheat beer entered in a national homebrew competition. Coors approached me over the recipe, but someone 'higher up' thought craft brews were a gimmick, and they passed (the irony is: I HATE Wiezens!).
I attended the Great American Beer Tasting Festivals when there were less than 150 beers to taste. I met Michael Jackson a time or two (R.I.P.)
I brewed a bunch, drank a bunch, entered and won a lot of competitions... and then life intervened. I got married, had kids, things got... complicated. It was easier to buy imported beer, etc., etc., etc.
My kids are grown. The last one is in college and much of my brewing supplies are collecting dust out in the shed. I'm down to the last few bottles of 20 year old mead. For the last couple of years I've been wanting to get back into it. A while ago I built another kegerator (I had one 'back in the day' - kegging homebrew is the ONLY way to go), and drank imports... but I put space for a second faucet with room for a corny next to my 50 litre keg o' something from overseas.
Well, this weekend I dusted off my stuff, scouted out local homebrew shops and was absolutely blown away at what stuff costs now. Back then, homebrew was less than half the price of commercial imports. Nowadays, you're lucky to break even, it appears. But... I still want to brew. I have eight corny kegs, a few 'standard' old-school kegs with the hole for the wooden bung in the side, several glass carboys.... and lots of old, dry rotted tubing, corks, etc.
One other thing I've noticed. I know NOTHING about homebrewing any more. Gelatin for clarity? Never heard of it back then. Irish moss, sure! Gelatin? Now way. Grains in a bag...steeped, not boiled? Gah! That's all news to me. Forums for homebrewing? Internet sites with 6K+ recipes??? Never imagined such a thing!!!
So... an old-school brewer comes hat-in-hand seeking the knowledge to brew, once again.
Thanks for having me.
Guyotron