Ah, beer! When I was a young lad (which was in the prior century), beer was yellow, fizzy and best served as cold as possible. We drank it mostly out of cans, sometimes bottles and even more impressively, long neck bottles. For parties, beer came in kegs. Everyone knew that keg beer tasted better than canned or even bottled beer.
People did have opinions on the best beer – the popular choices were Budweiser and Miller Lite. Pabst Blue Ribbon was a strong contender, especially when a keg was wanted (it was slightly cheaper). Coors Light came along soon after. Bud Light didn’t start making a strong showing until I was out of college, (by which time I was consuming considerably less of the beverage).
For most of my life, “beer” was always a light lager from Bud/Miller/Coors. Guinness had always been around, but like most of my contemporaries, I wasn’t into those “heavy, dark beers”. Every now and then I would try a Dos Equis, or even a Heineken, but still didn’t stray too far off the American light lager path. Oh, sure, there were times where I was a bit more bold, like when I got a Boulevard sampler 12-pack for Christmas. That had a pale ale, a wheat beer, and a very dark porter. I did manage to finish it all.
Then, in 2010, I saw Mr. Beer kits on display in a Sears store where we were doing some Christmas shopping. I pointed it out to my wife, and said that might make a nice Christmas gift for me. I had some friends who dabbled in homebrewing in the mid 1990’s, although I never actually tasted any of their product. But, the idea of making things myself has always appealed to me, and brewing my own beer had a particular attraction.
I did get a homebrew kit for Christmas. But my wife, being wise, did not get the Mr. Beer kit that was being marketed for Christmas. Instead, she found the local homebrew shop, told the owner what she was doing, and ended up with a Brewers Best homebrew kit, , and an extract ingredient kit (a Brewers Best Continental Pilsner kit, which had yeast that could be used at ale temperatures).
Of course, the first thing I did was start researching. In all honesty at the time, I was looking to duplicate something like Budweiser. I discovered that the Continental Pilsner kit could make something close to Budweiser, but that to be really close it should be fermented at colder than room temperatures.
Always make sure that whenever you take it, just have the 100mg cialis online sales pills an hour before the person makes love. The nourishing fat content of the acai berry is exceedingly nutritious and it can be an enormously favorable addition to a cheap levitra uk healthy diet. Vascular diseases are related to the health problems and just purchase viagra in australia seeing your life getting devastated in front your eyes? If you happen to fall into the latter category then all isn’t still lost yet. It may take the spontaneity out of things but it will surely taper off the cheap viagra generic problem in minutes. I also discovered that we didn’t have any kettles large enough for the extract batch. It gave me a reason to go to the local homebrew store, where I purchased a five gallon kettle, got some advice as to how to use all of the equipment (the little homebrewing pamphlet included in the kit didn’t go into a lot of details), and bought an Amber Ale extract kit, whichbecame my first homebrew.
The problem with homebrewing is that it makes you dissatisfied with the status quo. As I started looking at the available extract kits, I discovered a wide array of beers, far beyond Budweiser and Guinness. I joined the American Homebrewers Association, which comes with a subscription to Zymurgy magazine, and subscribed to Brew Your Own magazine.
These gave me a great amount of detail of not only different kinds of beer, but how to brew them.
This caused me to start looking for some of these beers in the stores. The craft breweries were happy to provide a multitude of styles for my drinking pleasure.
And I learned a lot along the way. I read books, listened to podcasts, brewed a lot of beers. I discovered that a glass makes all the difference in the world (no wonder draft beer tasted better – it was always served in a glass!). I discovered that freshness matters – explaining why two of the best beers I had prior to my homebrewing start were served directly at the brewery (Coors in Golden, Colorado and Budweiser at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida).
As I said in my opening post, this website is a place for me to record my thoughts, findings and opinions on homebrewing, and provide (hopefully!) useful information to others about this hobby. The links on the menu will take you to my recommendations on starter kits, brewing methods, equipment, brewing projects, and books. Be aware that any link that takes you to Amazon is an affiliate link, meaning if you buy something I will get a small commission on the sale (like the one below – please click on it!).
[amazon_link asins=’1938469356′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’redzymurgist-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’b70f1caf-b81e-11e7-8af6-25d5e0048e6e’]