I started to homebrew about a year ago when my old college roommate Justin told me he had started. I drove all the way to my "local" homebrew store, which is about 45 minutes away, and picked up what would be my first brew. I told the gentleman that I liked Heineken and he pointed me in the direction of Dutch Light Lager which is an imitation of Heineken. For those of you that aren't sure how beer brewing works, lagers are typically fermented at 55 degrees or less. So I left the store ready to start brewing my own beer. (I had to go back because I forgot the bottles I purchased). Instead of fermenting at 55 degrees or less I fermented up around 68-70 degrees (which is a quantum leap for yeast). But I dove right in and made a somewhat drinkable beer. Naturally it wasn't in the right style and it wasn't the right flavor. It was truly a miracle that it was even tolerable based on all the mistakes I made throughout the brewing process.
Fast forward to two months and one batch of homebrew later, I foolishly volunteered to make a Pumpkin Ale for my sister's wedding of 130 guests. It turned out that this brew came out slightly better than just drinkable but still not the best due to my inexperience. Now that I'm a year and 8 batches in I feel like I really have a grasp on what I'm doing. I didn't brew much over the winter to save up some money for extra batches this summer. I just brewed my first batch of the year today which I will describe further in my next post. I spent the winter formulating different recipes from a Sweet Stout with Cinnamon and Honey (Chocolate Bumble Bee Stout) to an IPA with 113 IBUs (Room 113, which is a reference to my freshman year dorm room) to a beer made with Tootsie Rolls (How's Your Beer, Toots). This blog will also serve as a place for me to review different beers that I try throughout the summer.
I'm open for challenges...If you come up with a flavor or ingredient that you want in a beer I'll be more than happy to brew it for you.
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