Starting Point

If you want to understand the context for what’s going on here, you can read my About Page. It’s about all the context I’m going to get into.

I’ve been brewing in one for or another for about 25 years. I started off the way most people did, at least in the late 1990s: I brewed on my stovetop, soaking bags of crushed grain, making a godawful mess. I fermented in plastic buckets without much cleanliness or sanitation and made something that was kind of beer-esque.

After a few years I learned how to do “all-grain” brewing which we will forthwith refer to as “making beer.” It took me years to make that jump because it seemed really intimidating. Truth is, I find it a lot easier than extract brewing. You have a lot more fine tuned control, you make much better beer, plus it’s great for your compost.

The equipment that I’m restarting with is the equipment that i was using when I started my brewery in 16 years ago. I’ve got a rusting gas burner, a five-gallon orange cooler with a mash screen in the bottom. I’ve got a couple of big stainless steel pots. That’s it.

For temperature control I’ve added in a sous vide. Not in the mash or anything. I just use it heat water to temp while I’m not watching. It’s pretty easy.

I use BeerSmith. I’ve been giving that guy money for the better part of two decades. Why stop now?

I use Bru’n Water – the paid version. It’s worth it.

The last time I brewed my old copper coil immersion chiller cracked and so I’m going to be making some upgrades to my kit. You can follow along as I do that pretty soon.

I’m also building a new draft system at home. It’s a small freezer that I’ll be building out as a one-tower draft system. People call that a “keezer.” I find that word embarrassing to type, much less say out loud, so we’ll call it my small home bar. I’ll document that here, too.

Finally, I’ll post recipes, too. I might post homebrew version of the recipe I used to make professionally. We’ll see. I’m not entirely sure about that just yet. I’m a fan of Belgian-style beers and stouts, so expect some of those. There are some styles I’ve never brewed, so I’ll probably dip in on some of those, too.

I’ll also write people recipes by request, but I’m not sure anybody is going to read this so that seems like an easy offer to make.

Let’s see where this journey takes us, shall we?