cmbrougham
Grandmaster Brewer
Greetings and salutations from northern Michigan! I'm just getting back into brewing slowly, with mild trepidation, after about a seven-year hiatus (or is that the seven-year itch?). I was a user of the forums here and of BeerSmith back in the day, and I see it has come a long way. In fact, I'd designed the logo and splash screen used on v1 of BeerSmith! Good times...
I brewed my first batch in all those years last weekend, and it's still slowly bubbling away in primary. I was fortunate to get some fresh hops from a local farm, and a yeast harvest from a local nanobrewery (plus they sold me a bag of their base malt, saving significantly on shipping costs!). Nothing fancy--something along the lines of an American Amber with a bit of crystal rye. Despite all those years, my brew day went pretty well, save for a briefly stuck mash; I'm sure I introduced some HSA when I dumped the contents of my MLT, but I'm not going to sweat it. It just felt good to be brewing again.
I'm planning a few other brews in the weeks ahead, like my not-yet-famous buckwheat ale that uses about 35% toasted kasha in the grist and which I'll try fermenting with a Saison yeast. I'm also going to experiment with some SMASH brews (more hops available from the farm, all from a single variety), and after a recent trip to the Bay Area in CA, I became madly infatuated with sour beers of both domestic and foreign origin. There's not much sour beer availability here in northern Michigan, so I'm going to start exploring this for my own. Not sure where to start, but I'm feeling adventurous!
Anyway, it's good to be back and I'm looking forward to being a part of the community again. Cheers!
I brewed my first batch in all those years last weekend, and it's still slowly bubbling away in primary. I was fortunate to get some fresh hops from a local farm, and a yeast harvest from a local nanobrewery (plus they sold me a bag of their base malt, saving significantly on shipping costs!). Nothing fancy--something along the lines of an American Amber with a bit of crystal rye. Despite all those years, my brew day went pretty well, save for a briefly stuck mash; I'm sure I introduced some HSA when I dumped the contents of my MLT, but I'm not going to sweat it. It just felt good to be brewing again.
I'm planning a few other brews in the weeks ahead, like my not-yet-famous buckwheat ale that uses about 35% toasted kasha in the grist and which I'll try fermenting with a Saison yeast. I'm also going to experiment with some SMASH brews (more hops available from the farm, all from a single variety), and after a recent trip to the Bay Area in CA, I became madly infatuated with sour beers of both domestic and foreign origin. There's not much sour beer availability here in northern Michigan, so I'm going to start exploring this for my own. Not sure where to start, but I'm feeling adventurous!
Anyway, it's good to be back and I'm looking forward to being a part of the community again. Cheers!