Howdy y'all!!

BadKarma

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Glad to be here.

I'm Lee, but my handle is BadKarma. That was my callsign in the Navy. I'm a Battleship sailor from the USS New Jersey BB62. 81-85. Fast approaching 60years old this Dec. I got started brewing in college in the 90's. About 10 years ago I had some life issues and stopped brewing. Just got to hectic. Well, in August 2020, I found myself in the hospital in ICU. End stage kidney disease! Total failure. I was instantly put on disability and now go to dialysis 3 days a week.

So now I have a great deal of time in my hands. What to do? I was rummaging around and stumbled across my brewing gear! Dragged it all out, cleaned it up and made some upgrades in fermentors. After some consideration, I've chosen to brew in small batches. I live alone and I like variety. And I've always loved British Ales!

I've still got a lot of my old recipes and will get them uploaded when I clean them up a bit.

As I stated, I'm glad to be here. Hell, I'm really glad to be anywhere!

Karma
 
glad to have you here! brew away! we love seeing new brews and old ones ;)
 
Hey Karma, welcome to the forum! Can't wait to see your brewing rig and some of your tried and true recipes. There's a lot of great people here with loads of brewing knowledge! Cheers
 
Hey Karma, welcome to the forum! Can't wait to see your brewing rig and some of your tried and true recipes. There's a lot of great people here with loads of brewing knowledge! Cheers

My brew rig is pretty humble. My kettles run from 3.5 -8 gallons. Fermenters 1.6-6.5 gallons glass and 1-3gallons Better Bottle and Fermonsters. Since I brew small batches, I boil on my induction plate. I like keeping things simple. Dialysis seems to drain the energy right out of me.
 
My brew rig is pretty humble. My kettles run from 3.5 -8 gallons. Fermenters 1.6-6.5 gallons glass and 1-3gallons Better Bottle and Fermonsters. Since I brew small batches, I boil on my induction plate. I like keeping things simple. Dialysis seems to drain the energy right out of me.
Nothing wrong with glass and plastic fermenters. Which induction burner do you have? That's been a recent topic on the forum. Also @Josh Hughes is my go-to expert for British beer recipes. If you need advice I'm sure he could help you out!

Dialysis sounds really tough, I'm so sorry. I'm currently healing a deep tissue back injury that has affected my life so much more than I ever expected. I had to change my brewing process initially so that I could keep going, but it felt really good to still be making beer :)
 
Thanks every.

Ward, I'm tweaking an original recipe on a Dark Mild. And I'm pretty sure the next one will be an Ordinary Bitters. I still love those English Ales!
Same! Love English beers

welcome to forum!
 
Same! Love English beers

welcome to forum!

In 1983 we left the US on our shakedown cruise headed in a WESPAC. In August we were recalled to El Salvador for 2 weeks. We departed that zone and thought we were going home. But we were heading south. We transited the Canal and made a high speed run across the Gulf, the Caribbean, the Atlantic and into the Med! Finally wound up off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon. Where we stayed for 9 1\2 months.

The reason I told y'all that is because, I got to try many many different beers around the world! Japanese, Philippinoe, Isreali, Egypt, Italian, Spanish and English? I didn't know it at the time, but I was getting a very valuable education.
 
Welcome!
From another small batch brewer with a very simple set up :D

Health Warning: this hobby is addictive :confused:
 
Welcome!
Feel free to keep sharing those adventures.
Cheers,
Brian
 
Welcome!
Feel free to keep sharing those adventures.
Cheers,
Brian
Thank you sir!!

I served 4 years on the best ship in the Navy. On the outside, she was a beast! 16" guns! High speed hull! On the inside, she was a real lady and treated her crew with kid gloves. We were in Beirut on October 23, 1983. Google that date.America seems to have forgotten my brothers. But in Feb. 1984, we remembered them. With 288 rounds of 16" main battery!!

But, I digress. I have to say, my all time favorite beer, of all time was a rice beer from Japan, Kirin Lager!! But a 3 day stop in Italy on the way back opened my eyes. We were invited to a welcome home, kinda, at the American Embassy compound. That us where I was introduced to Guinness and English Bitters!
 
Here's a 20 year old me!! I'm on throttle watch in #4 Engineroom. I was a glorified gas pedal!!!!!
 

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Thank you for serving our nation. Welcome from Missouri.
 
Welcome to the forum @BadKarma! And thank you for your service!! Sorry to hear about your recent health issues. If you aren't already aware of it there is a YouTube channel for the New Jersey: https://www.youtube.com/c/BattleshipNewJersey. The museum curator does a lot of videos showing parts of the ship as well as talking about its history, like it's longest deployment that you were part of. He also asks for former crew members to comment on their experiences while on the New Jersey.

Like you I like all kinds of beer but have found British beers my favorite. In fact I'll be bottling an ESB on Saturday. https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1145921/david-heath-esb
 
Welcome to the forum @BadKarma! And thank you for your service!! Sorry to hear about your recent health issues. If you aren't already aware of it there is a YouTube channel for the New Jersey: https://www.youtube.com/c/BattleshipNewJersey. The museum curator does a lot of videos showing parts of the ship as well as talking about its history, like it's longest deployment that you were part of. He also asks for former crew members to comment on their experiences while on the New Jersey.

Like you I like all kinds of beer but have found British beers my favorite. In fact I'll be bottling an ESB on Saturday. https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1145921/david-heath-esb
Thank you sir!!
Yeah, I've been on that channel. I had to comment to correct him on one of the operations of the SSTG (Ships Service Turbo Generators). Without the operators manual they didn't know how it properly worked. But he actually does a pretty good job of explaining the operation of the equipment. We did have quite a long discussion though. I was told to ask for him if I ever get a chance to visit the old girl.

That deployment was all of 11 months long. We departed Long Beach on June 6th 1983 and tied up back in Long Beach on May 9th 1984. The USO flew Bob Hope out to us for his annual Christmas show!!!! That's the second time I got to meet him.

We were on our way home and pulled into Naples Italy for a 2 day liberty and I was sitting at the bar of a little "pub" style place when a British sailor sat down and we started talking. He introduced me to my very first bitters and I have been forever hooked. We keooked up on Faxxbook 15 years ago and he passed in 2019. But I will say, my favorite Ale has to be Milds. I love how subtle they can be if done right.
 

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