First off all, the 1 gallon batch from my previous brewing session is currently dry hopping. It will sit there for a few more days, then I’ll bottle. Stay tuned for that!

This past weekend my wife and I went down to Bend, OR for a Ben Harper concert. It was a great excuse to get out of town and hit up the home of Deschutes beer. While in Bend we hit up the Deschutes Brewery, Deschutes Brewpub, Bend Brewing and Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene, OR on the way back up to home in Portland, OR.

Deschutes Brewery and Pub

If you ever get a chance to go to Bend, OR, I highly recommend hitting up the Deschutes Brewery for a tour. It is a very nice facility that they are adding on. The tour guide mentioned that Deschutes is currently the 11th highest selling beer in America right now. That is amazing in my opinion. Anyway, the tour is about 35 to 45 minutes long depending how many questions you ask. I seemed to be the only question asker, so it took about 40 minutes. It is a pretty standard tour, I was told to stop answering questions and let others answer, but no one wanted to answer so…

The one piece of info that I found out that I didn’t know is that Deschutes uses a proprietary English Ale yeast in ALL of their beers. That is good info for me to know if I do any cloning. Probably shouldn’t use my American Ale yeast that I love so much

After the tour you are giving 4 free samples of whatever they have on tap in their tasting room. I tried their two newest, the Stoic and the Conflux #2, which is collaboration beer between Deschutes and Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City, MI. Maybe I’ll do a review of the Conflux #2 for you, I picked up a bottle I liked it so much. It reminds me of a great balance of a Pilsner, Pale Ale and a Wheat Beer. Very fresh, crisp, clean and tasty.

We finished our tasting and headed over to the Deschutes Brewpub in downtown Bend to see where it all started. To be honest, I didn’t find the brewpub to be anything special. They are doing some remodeling so who knows what it will become, but it wasn’t anything great. The food was ok and the experimental beers on tap didn’t wow me. The wife got an IPA that she didn’t really like and I got a Pilsner that tasty a bit to much like lager yeast for my liking. I commend them for continuing to experiment.

Bend Brewing

The next day, after a couple hours canoeing on the Deschutes River, we hit up Bend Brewing for lunch. I like the look/feel of the inside of this pub. It is a little rustic, which ties in nice with Bend’s culture of being a very outdoorsy place. We had some pasta for lunch that wasn’t anything special. It filled me up, but that was about it. I ended up having their award winning Black Diamond Dark Lager, which they served with a lime slice in it. At first the lime threw me off. I’m not a fan of fruit in my beer unless its an adjunct used during brewing or fermentation, but after dropping it in the brew it gave it a little more freshness and ended up causing me to drink the beer in less than 5 minutes. I really enjoyed it. I was expecting something like a Full Sail Session, a little more malty and thick, but it ended up being a lot like little maltier, thicker, roasted Corona. That may sound bad, but the lime gives it that taste for me and the fact that it is session-able really makes this a good comparison. I also had their seasonal wheat on tap, which wasn’t all that special. Very light, middle of the road wheat in my opinion. Session-able and fresh, but not anything that kept me wanting more.

Ninkasi Brewing

Finally, we were on our way home and after an adventure through the Deschutes and Willamette National Forests we made it to Eugene, OR and Ninkasi. We only stopped for one, we had to get home. I really just wanted to check the place out. First off, their tap room and patio is amazing. They really know how to throw a party. Very industrial and modern looking with lots of concrete and stone work. Their brand is EVERYWHERE! Which can be a turn off sometimes, but since they seem to have a trendy brand it works really well. I tried their Quantum Pale Ale which tasted was a little lack luster. The wife had their Total Domination IPA and she wasn’t a fan. To malty for her hops addicted blood. My experience could have had a lot to do with the fact that I was tired and ready for the weekend to be over. My taste buds could have been destroyed by the time I tried Ninkasi, but who knows. I will be giving them some more tastes, that’s for sure.

I am finding more and more that there are only a select couple handfuls of beer that I consistently want to drink. I find that those same characteristics are what I’m always looking for in every beer I try. It becomes very hard to try beer objectively and not subjectively. A lot of beers that I just don’t like, win awards.

Do any of you have this same experience? Anyone tried Ninkasi? What are your thoughts on it?

Last Friday marked the start of a new beginning for me in the brewing world. If you followed my last post you would know that I haven’t brewed in quite a while because of my lack of space. Some of you may say that there is always ample room, heck the guy at the homebrew store told me he brewed 5 gallon batches in a fox hole while he was in Vietnam…So I guess I shouldn’t complain.

Regardless, the room I have isn’t sufficient to brew the way I like to brew. So I’ve been doing some research and decided to give brewing 1 gallon batches a try. I feel there are two major bonuses to this. I can really test and try ingredients, in small amounts to see what they are really like, and it allos me to do all grain batches to begin preparing myself that eventual all grain cross over.

Small Amounts = More Knowledge

If your like me you desire superior knowledge in everything you do. You want to be the best and you won’t stop until you are. One reason I’m excited to get on board with these one gallon batches is it limits the ingredients that I can use. Typically, I use 1 to 3 grains and 1 kind of hops. This will, hopefully, allow me to really zero in on specific characteristics of certain ingredients.

Going All Grain…Kinda

When brewing one gallon of beer I can finally go all grain because I’m using between 2 and 3 pounds of grain, which fits very well in my 4 gallon pot. This is a great baby step towards the extra time and processes that are incurred when you decide to go all grain. Plus, I hear it makes better beer than extracts, even though I’ve had some tasty extracts…

Enough about that though. Let’s talk about my batch.

Here is the recipe.

Mike’s NW Pale Ale

Malts:

2 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt

.25 lbs 2 Row Caramel Malt 60L

Hops:

All Centennial (Its going to be a little hoppy for the style, but its the Pacific Northwest and I could only by 2 oz at a time.)

.25 oz First Wort Hopping

.15 oz (60 min)

.25 oz (10 min)

.35 oz (1 min)

.25 oz (Flame Out)

.75 oz (Dry Hop 1 Week)

Yeast:

Safale US-05 (Half packet)

Directions:

Bring 144 oz of water up to 150 – 155 degrees and drop your grain in to start the mash. I lost 10 to 12 degrees when I dropped mine in. So I’ll adjust for that next time. After and hour, pull the bag out and into a strainer over the wort and pour 112 oz of 170 to 180 degree water over the top to rinse the grain and finalize conversions. Be sure to do your best to pour slowly and not splash any wort at this point. Hot side aeration is bad!!!

Boil for 60 minutes adding hops along the way.

Cool down as fast as you can. I just put a lid on mine and put in the freezer for 120 minutes. Not ideal, but my sink leaks water and a wort chiller is not a possibility.

Rehydrate and pitch yeast. Ferment the hell out of it.

A Couple of Notes:

1. The go into the first time trying this with an open mind and know it isn’t going to be perfect. I have about 4 things I need to pay attention to next time.

2. One gallon batches prove to have their own challenges. However, cleaning and working with 1 gallon is much easier than 5.

3. It isn’t that expensive to do this. Cost me just under $60 to get the 2, one gallon glass jugs and enough class to bottle 1 gallon, along with grain bags, ingredients and a new mini auto siphon.

4. It takes just as much time to do 1 gallon as it does 5…heck as long as it does to do 7 barrels with the right equipment.

5. Learn your gear. I started with 1.6 gallons and I still ended up topping off my jug with 6 cups of water. I’ll start with 2 gallons next time. I’ve go my boil off somewhat calculated now.

To make a long story short. I’m very excited about this. I’m going to ripping up some 1 gallon batches for a while to learn my ingredients better and to hopefully develop some new, personal, recipes that I really like and can share with you. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Has anyone else done any experiments lately or brewed up one gallon batches?

Cheers!

I started brewing beer a couple of years ago with so much drive and motivation I had more beer than I would ever be able to drink. I got SO into brewing beer that I thought for SURE I would never give up homebrewing. It is just to darn fun, tasty and interesting. Alas, things changed for me.

Don’t get my wrong. I am by NO means quitting brewing beer, but I have to say that since I haven’t brewed a thing in over 6 months, I’m officially on a hiatus from brewing. Let me tell you why.

Brewing beer is by far one of the most fun things I have ever done. I enjoy pretty much every aspect of a good brew day, especially the beer . But I recently found a breaking point. I found a point as to where it just isn’t fun and pretty much turns into a super chore for the day.

I live in a tiny, 2 bedroom corner unit apartment that just doesn’t have the space I’d like for brewing. Let me walk you through a couple scenarios here.

1. Take a look at this storage area for my brewing gear. I have been sequestered to using our spare closet that my cats shit and piss in to store my gear. Yea, that’s a great place to store gear that is used to make edible drinks that are highly susceptible to infections right? So basically this means that when I want to brew, not only do I litterally have to dig out every single piece of gear, but I have to go and clean it first. Sure, you must clean your gear before you brew regardless, but the level of cleaning is much different when you know your cats shit and piss in this room and there is SO much cat litter dust on your gear it makes me sick. I cannot, and will not give someone, one of my beers saying, here is where I store my gear. Gross.

2. Aside from that, when I take the gear into the kitchen to clean, I’m forced to work in a tiny little area that doesn’t allow me much breathing room. I’ve used my tub as well, which is all the way across the apartment to clean. Brewing in the small kitchen isn’t to bad. I’ve got stove, a big sink and a couple of different levels for gravity moving the beer. So I won’t complain to much about that. Except for when it comes to chilling my wort. Did I mention my sink doesn’t hold water and the water temp only goes down to about 70? Again, I’ve tried the bath tub, which works to an extent. Good enough that if I actually wanted to brew, I’d make it work.

3. Last but not least, where my beer ferments. This tiny little closet, that as you can see is full of junk, is where my pretty little beer gets to have its private time. This is the only closet that isn’t packed with a bunch of stuff we are storing for our first house and is the only walls that are not outside apartment walls. I cannot control my fermentation temperature at all. I don’t have any AC or central air here so I suffer from 10 to 20 degree temp swings depending on the weather. Babysitting my fermentation, especially without the right equipment to keep a consistent temperature is a chore I do not want to endure.

As you can see, I suffer from many challenges that I personally can’t overcome. I want to brew beer, but I have so much knowledge about the process and expect my beer to only get better, unless of course we have accidents or experiments, that I can’t, in my right mind, brew here. I’ll be tossing batches left and right because they won’t turn out due to infection, high fermentation temps and so forth. Plus the fact that each brew day consists of two full shifts of getting gear out, washing, then washing and putting gear away right of way has just turned my favorite hobby into a nightmare chore.

But alas! I am not quitting, I’m just on hiatus. I’ve been spending a bit of time with a local brew pub, learning from their brewmaster anything he will show/tell me. I have plans to check out a hop farm this summer and I’m starting to get some exposure to the Oregon Brewers Guild. Oh, and all my birthday and x-mas money is secretly being socked away for an All-Grain system as soon as we purchase that home.

So please, feel free to still contact me in regards to brewing. I love talking about it and I really need someone to live vicariously through while I suffer in my Portland shanty.

Cheers everyone.

I know I’ve been focusing more on sharing first time homebrewing stories with everyone in hopes of inspiring those people that aren’t doing it yet to do it, and those of you that haven’t in a while to get to it!

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Beer Tools. For those of you unfamiliar with what Beer Tools is, it’s software that assists pro brewers and home brewers a like to design recipes. I haven’t dug to far into it, but I can tell you that any serious homebrewer needs to get this. It has a lot of features, recipes and information that can take your homebrewing recipes and organization up to the next level. Plus, its a modest $30, so well worth it in my opinion.

Sometime in the future, I’ll see if I can get a screen capture software and dig into it with you so you can see it. Until then, why don’t you just grab a free trial?

Anyway, so with this new tool I decided to finally take a stab at making my own brew recipe. Check out the video to see what’s up. I’ll post the recipe below.

Overall, I think it turned out decent. Many things could be better and one of them is getting myself some space to get a fermentation fridge. I can’t control my temperature in my space without it and I’m pretty sure it would take my taste up to a new level.

Download Mike’s Porter Recipe

Today we are going to talk with Dan about his first time homebrewing experiences and what his advice for anyone thinking of getting into the hobby!

Background

I’m a graphic designer (and I work with Mike)

What is your name?

Dan

Where do you live?

Milwaukee, WI

Tell us a little about yourself. (married, children, pets, education, career, whatever you want to tell us)

I have an awesome job designing racecars and magazines (two different career paths, but there you go). I’m newly married and just moved to Milwaukee from Fargo, ND to push my career to the next level.

Do you have a blog? Tell us about it. (ex. name of it, why you decided to start it, what’s the blogs goal)

I have two blogs- DanNisbet.com and NoviceRunners.com. DanNisbet.com focuses on design and typography, NoviceRunners.com is my newest venture into getting more people into running and where they can start.

What is your favorite style of beer?

I’ve always been a fan of thick, dark beer

There is almost always a story behind why you get started homebrewing. What’s your story?

I had the privilege of helping Mike with the technical side of getting Mike’s Brew Review up. Along with tagging along on a few brew days and seeing the costs of getting started, I was hooked pretty easily.

For the Prospective Brewer

If there was one piece of advice you’d like to pass on to a prospective homebrewer, what would it be?

Watch for boil-overs and make sure you at least start with a 4 or 5 gallon pot.

Before you started brewing where did you look for information in regards to your questions about brewing? (websites, books, clubs, friends, etc)

Simply to Mike- as I’ve watched him get this all started up, I had the opportunity to ask lots and lots of stupid (and sometimes smart) questions.

Did you start with a starter equipment kit or did you put something together yourself?

I purchased the Basic Kit from Northern Brewer

Was there anything unique about your initial equipment setup?

Nope

Your First Brew Day

What was your first recipe? (Extract, partial mash or all grain)

I did a kit from Northern Brewer- a Scottish 60-Schilling Ale. It came with about a pound of grain and extract.

Describe your first brew day, as much as you can remember. Were you nervous, did things go right, horribly wrong, forget something?

We had everything set up pretty well. I learned some good shortcuts here and there that really helped out as well. To be honest, I wasn’t so nervous until it came time to cooling the wort and realizing I didn’t have enough ice to cool it. Thus, the famous snow-shovel picture when I decided to snag some snow off the roof of my apartment.

Did your yeast start right of way or was it lazy, making you a nervous wreck?

As I recall, it took about 8 hours to start- and it went wild for a few days

Did you know what that hydrometer do-hicky did and how to use it?

Yep!

Your First Bottling Day

What did you use to siphon your beer? Did it work?

Part of my home brewing kit included an auto-siphon. I can’t imagine how bad it would have sucked had I not had an auto siphon. So if you don’t- get one.

Describe your first bottling or kegging day. Everything go as planned?

Bottling was a little bit messy at the get go, but once we had a process down, it went very smoothly. I didn’t have as many bottles as I thought, so a few extras and a growler helped get me to the bottom of the fermenter.

Finally, Your BEER!

How long were you actually able to wait before you decided to open a beer and drink it?

I ended up waiting two and a half weeks before I opened the first one- looking back at how excited I was, I consider this a huge accomplishment on my part.

Was that beer good?

Yes! I really didn’t know what to expect, but the carbonation was good and it had a sweet flavor to it.

How did it make you feel to taste a beer that you brewed for the first time?

This was probably the best part for me- it was fun to know that I had the ability to take water and make beer.

Will you make beer again and what would you do differently?

I will be brewing more this summer! Plans include getting a secondary fermenter and a bigger pot for the stove.

What will be the first “toy” you’ll be adding to your brewing equipment setup?

I’m considering how to set up a wort chiller. I’ve looked at the one from Northern Brewer and it doesn’t seem all that difficult to set up at possibly a cheaper price. Besides the chiller, I would like to eventually move to a kegging system.

Do you already have dreams about taking your homebrewing beyond a hobby or are you satisfied with just making yourself some tasty brews?

For me, it’s going to remain a hobby. It’s something fun I can do with friends, kick back and relax with.

Do you have a beard? (Just taking a survey!)

I am unfortunately not as awesome as Mike. I’m just plain awesome.

Anything you’d like to add go right ahead and do it here!

The process of making my first beer was a lot of fun. Having gone through countless brewery tours (everything is a brewery in Milwaukee I think), I’ve learned about the process a million times or so. But it takes on a new level of fun when I can actually go home and do it myself. It’s given me a whole new appreciation for beer… not like I didn’t have one to begin with

I’d like to personally thank Dan for participating in the First Time Homebrewer questionnaire! Thanks Dan! Do you have any plans to brew coming up?

Also, remember you can Get Started Brewing Extract Beer, just by following the link!

Background

What is your name?

Christy

Where do you live?

San Jose, CA

Tell us a little about yourself. (married, children, pets, education, career, whatever you want to tell us)

I’m 28; a newlywed originally from the Washington, DC area. I quit my job of 5 years last August to follow love and adventure to the west coast. My husband works at a tech startup. I write, raise our puppy (Herbert, the cutest little blue-nose you’ve ever seen), and dabble in hobbies of varying degrees of ridiculousness.

Do you have a blog? Tell us about it. (ex. name of it, why you decided to start it, what’s the blogs goal)

You can find me at www.thebeerb1tch.blogspot.com and at twitter.com/thebeerb1tch.

I started the blog for a few reasons. First, I knew that homebrewing was going to require a lot of record-keeping, and figured that a blog would be a better place to keep these records than say scraps of paper towels, old notebooks and the backs of Christmas cards. Second, I (rightly) assumed that taking up this hobby would lead to a fair number of misadventures, and figured my friends and family are always looking for a good laugh at my expense. Finally, I don’t think I fit the stereotypical image of the homebrewer. For one thing, I’m a girl. Furthermore, I’m a girl who loves pink, reads romance novels, and spends a ridiculous amount of time applying makeup just for the sake of sitting around the house and looking pretty. So yeah, I wanted to bring a little girly perspective to the craft, and let people know that chicks like beer too.

What is your favorite style of beer?

Do I have to pick one? I almost always have an IPA and an Irish Stout in the fridge (Lagunitas and Guinness being the go-to’s, respectively). But then again I almost always have some brand or style I’ve never tried before in the fridge, too.

There is almost always a story behind why you get started homebrewing. What’s your story?

I guess it started as an off-hand comment to my husband back when we were still engaged. I’ve always wanted a job with a really cool title. You know, the kind of job where people ask, “What do you do?” And you say, “I’m a professional whistler.” And they say, “Really? I didn’t even know people could do that for a living!” So anyway, we were having dinner at a brew pub one night, and I decided that the job Master Brewer fit the bill of Awesome Job Title perfectly. I didn’t (and still don’t) actually intend to pursue brewing as a career, but the comment turned into a discussion of how much fun it would be to learn how to brew. And since I like to dabble in hobbies, I started to do some minimal research into what it took to become a homebrewer.

But here’s the thing with hobbies. The start up costs tend to be very high, and the follow-through (at least for me) tends to be very low. For example, the amount of money I’ve spent on scrapbooking supplies is mildly embarrassing; but the fact that I’ve only made one and a half scrapbooks with all those supplies is downright humiliating. So, I pushed the whole homebrewing thing to the back of my mind and figured that maybe it would be something I’d try someday.

Fast forward to last Christmas, our first as a married couple. We decided to stay out west, so we had the entire holiday to ourselves. We were planning to get our puppy that weekend, so I figured that was our big gift to each other. I wasn’t really expecting to have much under the tree. But lo and behold, we woke up Christmas morning, and there were boxes EVERYWHERE. Big ones. My husband had gotten me all the necessary equipment along with two extract kits from Northern Brewer. It was the perfect Christmas gift. I was completely surprised, and it was exactly the kind of thing that I wanted but never would have gotten for myself.

Of course, everyone thought it was one of those gifts that my husband really wanted for himself. My mom was all, “What, no jewelry?” and my friends were all “Well at least he’ll enjoy it.” But that’s just proof that my husband knows me better than my mother or my friends.

For the Prospective Brewer

If there was one piece of advice you’d like to pass on to a prospective homebrewer, what would it be?

Consider your first batch a practice run. Even if you’re 120% sure you’ve messed it up beyond any possible repair, keep going. At the very least, you’re learning how to use all the crazy equipment and figuring out a workflow that’s best for the space you’re in. And you may be surprised at how not messed up that first batch turns out.

Before you started brewing where did you look for information in regards to your questions about brewing? (websites, books, clubs, friends, etc)

"How to Brew" by John Palmer has by far been my biggest resource so far. I also frequent my local homebrew store, and find the guys there to be really helpful. I’d love to join a club, but so far my tendency toward shyness has kept me at home.

Did you start with a starter equipment kit or did you put something together yourself?

I have the Deluxe Beer Starter Kit from Northern Brewer, which has more than everything I need (really, there are still a couple pieces I haven’t figured out a purpose for).

Was there anything unique about your initial equipment setup?

Not that I can think of.

Your First Brew Day

What was your first recipe? (Extract, partial mash or all grain)

My first brew was the Northern Brewer extract kit for a Czech Pilsner. I learned, too late, that this is not an ideal brew for a beginner.

Describe your first brew day, as much as you can remember. Were you nervous, did things go right, horribly wrong, forget something?

It was mid-February. Yes, I let my beautiful Christmas gift sit in boxes for a month and a half because I was so nervous about starting out. What finally gave me the guts to get started was deciding, “whatever, I’m just going to ruin this first batch and get it over with.”

I started with a trip to the brew store. I needed yeast and sanitizer. I brought the instruction sheet that came with my extract kit with me, and told the owner of the store that this was my first brew ever. He seemed surprised, and that’s when I learned that most beginners don’t start with lagers. They’re evidently more temperamental than ales, and take longer to finish. I asked if I should just buy a simpler kit to start with. This is where the store could have made a quick few bucks off of me. Sell this poor, dumb girl a bunch of really expensive ingredients for a really simple beer and send her on her way. Instead, the guy said, “Nah, go ahead and challenge yourself.” Then he spent a good 15 minutes printing out recipes, tips for beginners, and step-by-step instructions on lagering for me, and told me to call or come in if I had any questions or problems. He also told me to bring in a bottle of the finished beer if I wanted any advice on how to improve future brews. This is when I realized that homebrewers are a pretty humble bunch who are really interested in sharing their craft.

For the actual brew, I think the things that made me most nervous were timing and sanitation. Boiling the wort actually went pretty smoothly. It was cooling it that gave me a fit. I vastly underestimated the amount of ice I’d need for the ice bath (FYI-the contents of your ice maker is Not. Enough.) To add insult to injury, lagers need to be a lot cooler than ales before the yeast is pitched. All together it took about an hour and a half of cycling cold water in the sink to get it down to 80 degrees, which still wasn’t nearly cold enough. I think I had it in my head that I had to pitch the yeast as quickly as possible, and I eventually lost my patience. I probably killed a good bit of yeast because I pitched it too soon.

Did your yeast start right of way or was it lazy, making you a nervous wreck?

My yeast took forever to start. I was convinced that I’d burned it all to death in the 80 degree wort. It finally started after 3 days, and active fermentation only lasted for about 48 hours. I left the beer in primary for almost 3 weeks, but probably could have moved it along a lot sooner.

Did you know what that hydrometer do-hicky did and how to use it?

Not even a little bit. Supposedly the OG of my Pilsner was 1.000. I know enough about the hydrometer to know that’s incredibly wrong. Obviously, taking the reading when the wort was well over 60 degrees was part of the problem, but the bigger problem was that I didn’t know what all the little numbers I was looking at meant.

Your First Bottling Day

What did you use to siphon your beer? Did it work?

Auto Siphon. Beautifully

Describe your first bottling or kegging day. Everything go as planned?

Yes. The first bottling day went much more smoothly than the first brewing day. I would say this was my favorite part of the process so far. There’s something very satisfying about watching each bottle fill with beer you made yourself.

Finally, Your BEER!

How long were you actually able to wait before you decided to open a beer and drink it?

Well, I just bottled it yesterday, so I’ve made it this far. Honestly, I don’t plan to open it before the full two weeks are up. I think flatness takes a lot away from a beer’s flavor, and I want my first taste to be the real deal. I did sneak a sip of the sample I used for the hydrometer reading, and was pleasantly surprised. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely not the disaster I was expecting.

Was that beer good?

How did it make you feel to taste a beer that you brewed for the first time?

Will you make beer again and what would you do differently?

Absolutely. I’ve already got my second brew in bottles as well, and I have 3 more kits waiting in the wings. I’m planning to brew at least one of them this weekend. I’m already considering getting a couple extra carboys so I can have a few beers going at once.

What will be the first “toy” you’ll be adding to your brewing equipment setup?

Well, I already purchased a chest freezer. Lagers need to condition below 40 degrees, and winters in Northern California just aren’t cold enough for that. I do want one of those fancy-schmancy wort chillers, and I have fantasies about expanding to an all-grain system…but I think that will wait until next Christmas.

Do you already have dreams about taking your homebrewing beyond a hobby or are you satisfied with just making yourself some tasty brews?

I don’t have any designs on making money off of it, if that’s what you’re asking. I would like to get more involved with local homebrewing groups, and I’d love to expand the blog into something useful, but I think that all still falls under the hobby category.

Do you have a beard? (Just taking a survey!)

Ha! I told you I don’t fit the stereotypical brewer image!

I’d like to personally thank Christy for participating in the First Time Homebrewer questionnaire! Thanks Christy! I know its been a while, but how are the beers coming? Make any more stellar pilsners?

Also, remember you can Get Started Brewing Extract Beer, just by following the link!