Hello all,
I brew in Oakland, CA. From about 2001-2003 or 2004, I was very avid about it, brewed and read about brewing all the time, and was even president of the local club.
But in 2004-2005 or so, I kind of burned out, and a change in housing made brewing logistically difficult for awhile, and so my interest largely waned. Since then I've been lucky to squeeze out 2-3 batches a year, and most of those haven't been that great.
Well I recently got bit by the bug again, and have become seriously re-obsessed. Haven't fired up the kettle yet (that will be next weekend), but in contrast to past years I've been voraciously researching, preparing and planning.
A couple of Google searches led me to this forum and HOLY #%@! there is a lot of information here! Back in the day all I really was aware of for ongoing brewing discussion was Homebrew Digest, and that was like maybe 20 messages a day or something. Here there's thousands upon thousands of awesome threads (and posters with tens of thousands of posts, that's amazing).
I've learned (and re-learned) a tremendous amount lurking here just the last 10 days or so. Lots of my old assumptions are getting adjusted. I think that my techniques may change a lot, though for now I'm gonna KISS and only change one or two things from my standard methods (specifically those related to yeast and fermentation).
Anyhow, who knows if this'll last. I hope it does, I used to really enjoy it. In fact the last couple days I've repeatedly asked myself why did I stop doing this again???
Anyhow thanks for all the great info and advice.
I brew in Oakland, CA. From about 2001-2003 or 2004, I was very avid about it, brewed and read about brewing all the time, and was even president of the local club.
But in 2004-2005 or so, I kind of burned out, and a change in housing made brewing logistically difficult for awhile, and so my interest largely waned. Since then I've been lucky to squeeze out 2-3 batches a year, and most of those haven't been that great.
Well I recently got bit by the bug again, and have become seriously re-obsessed. Haven't fired up the kettle yet (that will be next weekend), but in contrast to past years I've been voraciously researching, preparing and planning.
A couple of Google searches led me to this forum and HOLY #%@! there is a lot of information here! Back in the day all I really was aware of for ongoing brewing discussion was Homebrew Digest, and that was like maybe 20 messages a day or something. Here there's thousands upon thousands of awesome threads (and posters with tens of thousands of posts, that's amazing).
I've learned (and re-learned) a tremendous amount lurking here just the last 10 days or so. Lots of my old assumptions are getting adjusted. I think that my techniques may change a lot, though for now I'm gonna KISS and only change one or two things from my standard methods (specifically those related to yeast and fermentation).
Anyhow, who knows if this'll last. I hope it does, I used to really enjoy it. In fact the last couple days I've repeatedly asked myself why did I stop doing this again???
Anyhow thanks for all the great info and advice.
