Join Date: 12/17/20
I began homebrewing in January of 1996. My first experience with homebrewed beer was in 1969. It had been fermented using bread yeast. It was awful. I swore I would never let another homebrewed beer touch my lips. Then at Christmas in 1995 my brother-in-law brought over a beer he had homebrewed using an extract kit. I really didn’t want to taste it, but decided I would take a small sip, and then discreetly find a place to pour out the rest of the glass. To my total surprise, the homebrew was excellent! It turned out to be my brother-in-law’s first and last homebrew (too much work). But it started my homebrewing journey that 28 years later has resulted in over 480 batches - 450 all-grain.
I brew with an outdoor 10 gallon stainless steel all-grain system. See my profile image. 15 gal Hot Liquor Tank, 16 gallon SS insulated mash tun, 25 gallon SS boiler and 2 Blichmann SS low pressure 72K BTU burners. My brewing storage cabinet/brewing platform is from Home Depot. I built the table that the boiler sits on and a step-up base for the HLT. The storage cabinet remains outdoors with the burners, HLT, and HLT table stored inside. Note the stairs that run up next to the brewing platform. No ladders! In 2023 I added a Steelhead pump to recirculate my mash and then to transfer from mash tun to boiler. I use both a SS immersion chiller and copper counterflow chiller. After the boil, I hook up the chillers, and pump the cooled wort back up through a whirlpool port on the side of the boiler. After 10-20 minutes of whirlpool/recirculation the wort is down to 50-70F and I collect in plastic fermenters.
I do a variety of step infusion (using hot water step-ups) and decoction mashes. For sour beers I frequently use a kettle souring routine. I have a chest freezer with a Johnson Controls temperature controller to ferment lager style beers. I use a 50 gal plastic cooler with a heating pad in the bottom to warm ferment sour beers. I barrel-age most sour beers in a medium toasted 10 gallon oak barrel that was originally used to ferment rye whiskey. I serve using Cornelius kegs and a 3 tap Kegland kegerator.
My favorite styles include Bohemian Lagers, Bavarian Helles/Pilsners, Maerzen/Vienna/Oktoberfest, Dunkels, Steam Beer, German Altbier and Kolsch ales, English bitters and IPAs, Scottish Ales and free-style American ales featuring my home grown hops. I have in recent years been experimenting with Belgian and sour ales.
I prefer whole hops. I rarely use high alpha hops (over 10% Alpha Acid). My favorite bittering hops are Perle, Northern Brewer, and Nugget. My favorite First Wort/flavor/aroma hops are Mittlefruh, Saaz, Hallertau, Tettnanger, and Spalt for lagers and German ales. For English and American Ales I like Goldings, Fuggles, Williamette, Brewer’s Gold and Cascades. I home grow Nugget, Sterling, Willamette, Mt. Hood and Crystal hops. Other hops are mostly purchased from Puterbaugh Farms (Hops Direct) in Mabton, Washington.
My favorite base malts are German/Bohemian Pils, Belgian Pils, Maris Otter, Vienna, Munich, and plain old American/Canadian 2-row. I like Melanoidin, Aromatic, and Honey malt to richen the flavors. My favorite crystal malts are Caravienne, Caramunich, Carafoam, British crystals up to about 60L, and Special B. I use carafa or chocolate malts for dark beers. I often add Carafoam/CaraPils, Naked Oats, flaked oats, wheat, or barley for more body/foam.
Until recent years, I brewed exclusively with liquid yeasts, but now have found some excellent dry yeasts and use them a lot.
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