The year in beer
Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 12:17 pm
Yesterday I brewed a sweet stout in memory of John. This will likely be my last batch of beer for 2010, so I thought it might be a good idea to summarize my brewing journey for the year. A lot has happened.
I joined the club in February and brewed my fist batch the last weekend in March. I've since gone on to brew 26 batches of beer, for around 65 gallons. That's roughly a batch every 1.5 weeks!
3/27: My first batch, from 1/2 of a NB Irish Red extract kit.
4/22: Brewed the second half of the above kit, my 4th brew ever. This batch went on to take second place in the club competition. This is probably the event that sunk the proverbial hook and took this from amusing past time to near obsession.
May: I added temp control to my fermentation. First using a water bath then moved on to a fridge and a home-made controller.
June: I started doing partial mashes using "brew in a bag".
July: my first all-grain brew. Still using BIB.
7/30: brewed my first lager, an Munich Helles inspired by Lee's fine brew.
August: I said "F#ck the bag and added a spigot and screen to by mash tun. This made things much easier, especially on my back. I also started learning and experimenting with water composition.
September: I got really serious about water chemistry using a mix of well water, RO water, and mineral additions.. More recently I started using all RO water and building up the profile from scratch.
December: took the plunge into kegging. I currently have 3 kegs and a 3 gallon carboy of lagering Schwarzbier crammed into my little chest freezer.
I joined the club in February and brewed my fist batch the last weekend in March. I've since gone on to brew 26 batches of beer, for around 65 gallons. That's roughly a batch every 1.5 weeks!
3/27: My first batch, from 1/2 of a NB Irish Red extract kit.
4/22: Brewed the second half of the above kit, my 4th brew ever. This batch went on to take second place in the club competition. This is probably the event that sunk the proverbial hook and took this from amusing past time to near obsession.
May: I added temp control to my fermentation. First using a water bath then moved on to a fridge and a home-made controller.
June: I started doing partial mashes using "brew in a bag".
July: my first all-grain brew. Still using BIB.
7/30: brewed my first lager, an Munich Helles inspired by Lee's fine brew.
August: I said "F#ck the bag and added a spigot and screen to by mash tun. This made things much easier, especially on my back. I also started learning and experimenting with water composition.
September: I got really serious about water chemistry using a mix of well water, RO water, and mineral additions.. More recently I started using all RO water and building up the profile from scratch.
December: took the plunge into kegging. I currently have 3 kegs and a 3 gallon carboy of lagering Schwarzbier crammed into my little chest freezer.
