- Joined
- May 7, 2026
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 22
- Points
- 3
Hello from Northwest Arkansas. I have been a "free" calculators user for a number of years and have recently become a paying member. In the past, I used a Google Docs form I developed for my recopies and brew log. Now, converting my go-to brews and new brews into Brewer's Friend. I started as an extract brewer in the early 1990's and then took about 20 years off from brewing before moving to all grain when I retired a few years ago.
I brew with a Digi Boil Gen 2, 7 gallons, 110v. Would love the speed of 220v, but didn't want to get into expense and mess of rewiring a dedicated outlet. Happy with my set-up and brewing. Still playing with different sparging methods. Ferment my ales at room temperature, around 74-78F depending upon time of year. For my lagers I have a 7 cubic foot refrigerator that nicely fits my 7.5 gallon Fermonster. I do closed transfers with CO2 to move my finished beer into Corny kegs. Have a two tap kegerator at home and a two tap jockey box to take my beer to events and parties. I currently force carbonate my kegs, but I may switch to natural carbonation using a spundling valve.
Active in both the OZ and FLOPS brew clubs here in Northwest Arkansas. Each club has it's own unique vibe even though we do many shared events and about a third of each club are dual members. We do a quarterly brewing competition between the members of the club with each brewer brewing to the specific style selected for that quarter. Our most recent style was Vienna Lager and we had some excellent brews.
I brew a mix of ales and lagers. I prefer to drink lagers and have, like most home brewers, limited fermentation, lager and serving space to focus on just lagers. Enjoy Alt beer, which I condition/lager after room temperature fermentation, plus German pilsner, helles, keller bier and marzen styles. I also brew IPAs, especially for events and parties. Will be making my first smoked beer later this year for one of our quarterly club competitions.
Beer-focused travel is also something I enjoy. I try to get to Germany at least once each year. The annual festivals, like Oktoberfest, are events that I enjoy attending, as well as just tasting the many local brews available in many German and Austrian towns. I have also toured Belgium and made the pilgrimage to Pilsen. In 2025 was able to get to CAMRA's Great British Beer Festive and had a fantastic time. I do plan to go again or at least to one of their regional festivals in the next few years. I don't do as much beer travel here in the US due to the dominance of IPAs--or should I say the lack of focus on lagers? I appreciate the additional capital cost of lager brewing and understand why relative few craft brewers lager. Here in NWA we have really good lagers at Natural State Beer Company and I often go the Kansas City Brewing for their great selection of German beers.
If there is one aspect of brewing that I would like to try in the future, it is doing a small batch ESB that I could naturally carbonate and serve with a beer engine. Any thoughts on a relatively low cost beer engine and two gallon firkin set-up would be appreciated.
I brew with a Digi Boil Gen 2, 7 gallons, 110v. Would love the speed of 220v, but didn't want to get into expense and mess of rewiring a dedicated outlet. Happy with my set-up and brewing. Still playing with different sparging methods. Ferment my ales at room temperature, around 74-78F depending upon time of year. For my lagers I have a 7 cubic foot refrigerator that nicely fits my 7.5 gallon Fermonster. I do closed transfers with CO2 to move my finished beer into Corny kegs. Have a two tap kegerator at home and a two tap jockey box to take my beer to events and parties. I currently force carbonate my kegs, but I may switch to natural carbonation using a spundling valve.
Active in both the OZ and FLOPS brew clubs here in Northwest Arkansas. Each club has it's own unique vibe even though we do many shared events and about a third of each club are dual members. We do a quarterly brewing competition between the members of the club with each brewer brewing to the specific style selected for that quarter. Our most recent style was Vienna Lager and we had some excellent brews.
I brew a mix of ales and lagers. I prefer to drink lagers and have, like most home brewers, limited fermentation, lager and serving space to focus on just lagers. Enjoy Alt beer, which I condition/lager after room temperature fermentation, plus German pilsner, helles, keller bier and marzen styles. I also brew IPAs, especially for events and parties. Will be making my first smoked beer later this year for one of our quarterly club competitions.
Beer-focused travel is also something I enjoy. I try to get to Germany at least once each year. The annual festivals, like Oktoberfest, are events that I enjoy attending, as well as just tasting the many local brews available in many German and Austrian towns. I have also toured Belgium and made the pilgrimage to Pilsen. In 2025 was able to get to CAMRA's Great British Beer Festive and had a fantastic time. I do plan to go again or at least to one of their regional festivals in the next few years. I don't do as much beer travel here in the US due to the dominance of IPAs--or should I say the lack of focus on lagers? I appreciate the additional capital cost of lager brewing and understand why relative few craft brewers lager. Here in NWA we have really good lagers at Natural State Beer Company and I often go the Kansas City Brewing for their great selection of German beers.
If there is one aspect of brewing that I would like to try in the future, it is doing a small batch ESB that I could naturally carbonate and serve with a beer engine. Any thoughts on a relatively low cost beer engine and two gallon firkin set-up would be appreciated.
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