Howdy All,
I'm Tim and I live outside of Kansas City on the Kansas side. I used to brew quite a bit in college and when I lived near Green Bay, WI. But I haven't brewed in over 10 years. Too little time with the wife, career and kids thing going on. Besides, I originally started brewing to make beer resembling the good European beer I was raised on. And it was cheaper than buying stale imports (when you could find them). But it got easier to get good beer, and the "saving" money bit wasn't holding as much water since you could go to any liquor store and get a range of good beers at an affordable price.
Now I'm coming back, less because I want beers I can't find but more because I want to brew MY beers. I want to work on a handful of styles and play around with the styles and techniques to get them down to where I have MY house beers on tap and the occasional specialty. And, in case any local liquor store or brewpub owners are worrying about their business dropping, I think it's going the OTHER way. The more I try to define the styles I want, the more research I'm doing to know what target I want to shoot for. Heck, in trying my Belgian, I think I cleaned every liquor store in town out of their stock of Chimay, Rochefort, Delirium and Golden Carolus. Took notes on the tastings but they aren't very legible and seem to be written in a foreign language....guess I'll just have to wait for them to restock!
Seriously though. In coming back, it seems like I'm in a time warp. Things have changed SO much it's like an entire other world. The equipment and information available are almost mind-boggling. When I started years ago I had to go to the local feed store for a floating dairy thermometer and the local farm co-op for hops. Mail order was a crapshoot. There were some good ones, and there were some not so good ones...Now we've got multiple stores here in town! But I do LOVE the Beersmith program. The ability to convert the recipes and then turn out a shopping list was fantastic. Heck, I was able to call my favorite shop to see what the % on their hops were so I could plug it in and change the quantities before going to get them! THAT was a serious time-saver. Well worth the money to buy the program. And having my brewlog, calculators and conversion charts in one spot is GREAT.
OK, my monologue's run long enough. Thanks again and good brewing to all.
Tim