It seems like every time I google something homebrew related Homebrewtalk is one of the top couple of search results. So I've browsed plenty of threads, and now I join because I have a question.
Name here is Mike, or N7KMS which is my ham call sign, and I currently live in Heron, MT. I say currently because I work for a public school as IT support and am being laid off at the end of the school year. I was born and raised in Nebraska though where my family still lives and my dad does his own homebrews.
Speaking of my homebrewing dad, he is the one who got me into this obsession. I've been toying with the idea for a few years but it wasn't until Christmas 2012 when he got me the 1 gallon starter kit from Northern Brewer, as well as the Caribou Slobber, Dead Ringer, and Chinook IPA kits.
I've brewed and drank the Caribou Slobber and Dead Ringer with meh results. I had an off taste that I think may be from over pitching the S-05 yeast included with the kits. The directions said to use half a packet then toss the rest, so for the first two I went a little generous. But on this last batch I had a tiny sized huckleberry melomel experiment I wanted to do and use half of the remaining half of yeast on, so I was a little less generous. The first two kits I didn't need a blow off tube but this one I did, temperature and everything was pretty much the same. After racking to secondary on the Chinook I took a sample and got none of the weird taste. I'm bottling it in a couple days so we'll see how that turns out. I have no idea how long the melomel will take, that is just a hair brained idea I had.
Thats basically all I've got for Christmas gift extract kits. I've got the Sierra Madre and Whitehouse Honey Porter kits in the mail and they should be here in a few days. I've also been formulating recipes using the calculator over on Tasty Brew (yes I know it is a competing website, but I like how that calculator works). As far as equipment, I have the basic kit plus a few extras. I bought a 1 gallon cheapo jug of wine to use as a secondary, plus an extra stopper and airlock and fermometers for both jugs. I also built a bottling bucket out of a 2 gallon garbage can and spigot from my LHBS, I didn't really like the hassle of using an auto siphon on bottling day.
So thats where I stand. Outside of brewing I like to hunt and fish, ham radio (obviously), going for long contemplative drives on forest service roads, and generally goofing off with my wife and son. I hope I can be a productive member of this forum!
Name here is Mike, or N7KMS which is my ham call sign, and I currently live in Heron, MT. I say currently because I work for a public school as IT support and am being laid off at the end of the school year. I was born and raised in Nebraska though where my family still lives and my dad does his own homebrews.
Speaking of my homebrewing dad, he is the one who got me into this obsession. I've been toying with the idea for a few years but it wasn't until Christmas 2012 when he got me the 1 gallon starter kit from Northern Brewer, as well as the Caribou Slobber, Dead Ringer, and Chinook IPA kits.
I've brewed and drank the Caribou Slobber and Dead Ringer with meh results. I had an off taste that I think may be from over pitching the S-05 yeast included with the kits. The directions said to use half a packet then toss the rest, so for the first two I went a little generous. But on this last batch I had a tiny sized huckleberry melomel experiment I wanted to do and use half of the remaining half of yeast on, so I was a little less generous. The first two kits I didn't need a blow off tube but this one I did, temperature and everything was pretty much the same. After racking to secondary on the Chinook I took a sample and got none of the weird taste. I'm bottling it in a couple days so we'll see how that turns out. I have no idea how long the melomel will take, that is just a hair brained idea I had.
Thats basically all I've got for Christmas gift extract kits. I've got the Sierra Madre and Whitehouse Honey Porter kits in the mail and they should be here in a few days. I've also been formulating recipes using the calculator over on Tasty Brew (yes I know it is a competing website, but I like how that calculator works). As far as equipment, I have the basic kit plus a few extras. I bought a 1 gallon cheapo jug of wine to use as a secondary, plus an extra stopper and airlock and fermometers for both jugs. I also built a bottling bucket out of a 2 gallon garbage can and spigot from my LHBS, I didn't really like the hassle of using an auto siphon on bottling day.
So thats where I stand. Outside of brewing I like to hunt and fish, ham radio (obviously), going for long contemplative drives on forest service roads, and generally goofing off with my wife and son. I hope I can be a productive member of this forum!
