Homebrew for a neighbor

Moving to a new area is always an experience.  Meeting good neighbors is always nice.  Our neighbors are great- close to our age, love kids, put up with our dog, et cetera. The husband was curious about my homebrew.  Asking a couple questions about it, learning it was "cheap and easy"- my words not his- he became intrigued.

His deterrent was that every homebrew he ever had was a hopped up beer.  Too bitter.  I told him that homebrew would be whatever you make it.  I took over some of my malt heavy Imperial Brown Ale, made with all English hops (not too bitter), and he liked it.  Now he knows that we can brew a beer that he likes, and he is interested in brewing with me the next time.

What is great about homebrewers is that they share.  I told him that we could find a "clone" to almost any beer out there.  Lets find a beer that he likes, and see how close we can get to it.  He is up for it.  So after the Memorial Day Wedding brew gets put into secondary, we will probably boil up some malt heavy, english hop beer.  Now it is just time to do some research and find what we will actually be brewing.

Time will tell, and photos will be taken- look forward to another beer drinking becoming a homebrewer.

Memorial Day

It has been a long time since my last post.  I must apologize, life has been busy.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up, which for most people means a day off of work and cookouts.  While I do have Monday off, and will be up at the cabin with friends- I feel that it is important to remember those who gave their life for us to be able to drink beer, eat hot dogs and feel secure. I hope that the rest of this post does not overshadow the respect that I have (and my friends have) for the soldiers in the current and past military.

We will be having a Wedding Beer Brewday for the second year in a row.  We will be looking to make a wheat beer (with coriander and orange peels) and a simple, not too bitter IPA.  Basic beers to be brewed, hopefully we don't screw them up too bad.  I will be supplying one brewpot, a fermentor and the burner we will be using.  He has another brewpot and fermentor, and we are borrowing an immersion wort chiller to reduce the amount of time it takes to cool.

This will be a great day to introduce some of our friends to homebrew, all while drinking good homebrew and craft beer.  I hope that everyone else has awesome plans for Memorial Day weekend, and also pour a little out for those who aren't here to enjoy the weekend with us.

Beer-Con in San Diego

I do enjoy going to Beer Fests.  I wish I was able to get to more conferences to learn more about this hobby of mine.  If you enjoy going to these, then you should check out Beer Con, August 27th in San Diego:

On August 27^th the first ever Beer-Con will be unleashed on San Diego!  This is a conference by and for beer lovers!  The greatest minds and palates in craft beer have a platform to come together and share their passion!  Beer-Con 2011 is a one-day conference that is open to the public.  Attendees will get exclusive access to industry pros, answers to the questions they have always wanted to ask, learn about brewing and tasting beer from the best in the business and enjoy the party at our Tap Haven where we will have a special line-up of craft taps!

Special Offer: 

We want you and your readers to be amongst the first to know.  As special thanks we’d like to provide you with an exclusive promotion code to share with your readers.  Just enter the code “BARLEY” when registering for the event and get $50 off the ticket price!  Tickets will sell quickly so make sure to take advantage!