Mofo
Grandmaster Brewer
Now that Brad has unblocked me from the site (excessive spamming from my IP range, go figure.) I thought I'd say hi.
I'm Dave. My wife and I have a business in Fujian, China. We moved here from the SF Bay area in 2010. At the time the only beer available was the country's flagship brew, Qingdao (cheaper than a bottle of water!), and a few others distributed by Carlsberg. Nothing of what we left behind in California.
So I last year started brewing at home. My wife had a Mr. Beer kit shipped from America. Great gift, but it was like making brownies from a box. Didn't feel like brewing. Then a LHBS opened ... in Taiwan. Close enough! I filled a suitcase with ingredients during a visit and pieced together a brew kit from local hardware stores. There's no shortage of plastic buckets in China.
Now there are a half dozen craft beer bottle shops in town (one with over 200 imports!) a couple brew pubs (one run by a German guy who started brewing 18 months ago, opened shop 8 months ago, and is now expanding!) and it's not uncommon to see Rogue, North Coast, Brew Dog, and Mikkeller behind the bar. The bottles are dusty, but IPA was made for long boat rides.
And I've recently made the jump to all grain. BeerSmith has helped a lot. And these forums have been even more beneficial. I've learned nearly as much reading posts by BrewFun, Tom Hampton, Pat, Scott Ickes and others as I have reading Palmer's excellent book. Thanks Scott Ickes for your recent suggestion on mash tun specific heat. And, of course, thanks Brad. I've figured out that learning to use BeerSmith is learning to brew.
I'm Dave. My wife and I have a business in Fujian, China. We moved here from the SF Bay area in 2010. At the time the only beer available was the country's flagship brew, Qingdao (cheaper than a bottle of water!), and a few others distributed by Carlsberg. Nothing of what we left behind in California.
So I last year started brewing at home. My wife had a Mr. Beer kit shipped from America. Great gift, but it was like making brownies from a box. Didn't feel like brewing. Then a LHBS opened ... in Taiwan. Close enough! I filled a suitcase with ingredients during a visit and pieced together a brew kit from local hardware stores. There's no shortage of plastic buckets in China.
Now there are a half dozen craft beer bottle shops in town (one with over 200 imports!) a couple brew pubs (one run by a German guy who started brewing 18 months ago, opened shop 8 months ago, and is now expanding!) and it's not uncommon to see Rogue, North Coast, Brew Dog, and Mikkeller behind the bar. The bottles are dusty, but IPA was made for long boat rides.
And I've recently made the jump to all grain. BeerSmith has helped a lot. And these forums have been even more beneficial. I've learned nearly as much reading posts by BrewFun, Tom Hampton, Pat, Scott Ickes and others as I have reading Palmer's excellent book. Thanks Scott Ickes for your recent suggestion on mash tun specific heat. And, of course, thanks Brad. I've figured out that learning to use BeerSmith is learning to brew.