Hello, I see its customary to do a little intro and history of home brewing.
So I'm Martin, always enjoyed drinking decent beer, a passion for more interesting things to drink, discovered American influenced beers and received a home brew kit (Woodfordes Wherry) as a present probably back in 2012 from my wife. Panicked, stuck the kit in the loft for 12 months as thought thats going to be difficult or its all going to go wrong. Finally a mate showed me how easy it was to do the kit and I enjoyed that but didn't really like the taste of it. Next present from my wife was a brew day in Brixton, all grain brewing on Braumeisters, this got me far more interested and convinced that actually I could make something decent at home.
So after this I brought an electric tea urn from eBay, played about with brew in a bag, a cool box mash tun, had some success, had some disasters, built a Ferm fridge and got more and more hooked which finally lead me to buying a Grainfather in 2015.
Did the usual, thought hops were the cool thing and by throwing shed loads in I could make some amazing IPA's, always enjoyed finding a new style before it makes it to commercial, or trying to crack one after getting an early commercial version, so be that NEIPA, Milkshake IPA's, Peanut stouts, Brut IPA's, using kveik, I'll always try and make sure I get to it first to have a go at brewing it. My wife loved this new hobby, I'd constantly have a list of things I'd like as a present, things to start kegging etc.
I still brew on my old Grainfather (still love this bit of kit), have a mix of fermenters from Brewbucket, Fermentasaurus, GF conical with chiller, and still some plastic buckets and currently experimenting with using old used key kegs for wild and funky beers. Hops really are the cool thing, it helps that I'm an IPA addict, but the real smart thing is yeast, I love wild and funky beers, and there is so much you can do with yeast, thats the thing I love learning more about all the time. I love going to lots of beer festivals, from Indy Man, to Great British to London Craft Beer to BXL, I try to get to as many as I can fit in. Recently started entering a few of the BJCP comps, even did a bit of judging too, this is something I want to more of and get myself in for the exams at some point, but as with most things theres lots to do and just not enough time to do it all.
But thats pretty much me.
So I'm Martin, always enjoyed drinking decent beer, a passion for more interesting things to drink, discovered American influenced beers and received a home brew kit (Woodfordes Wherry) as a present probably back in 2012 from my wife. Panicked, stuck the kit in the loft for 12 months as thought thats going to be difficult or its all going to go wrong. Finally a mate showed me how easy it was to do the kit and I enjoyed that but didn't really like the taste of it. Next present from my wife was a brew day in Brixton, all grain brewing on Braumeisters, this got me far more interested and convinced that actually I could make something decent at home.
So after this I brought an electric tea urn from eBay, played about with brew in a bag, a cool box mash tun, had some success, had some disasters, built a Ferm fridge and got more and more hooked which finally lead me to buying a Grainfather in 2015.
Did the usual, thought hops were the cool thing and by throwing shed loads in I could make some amazing IPA's, always enjoyed finding a new style before it makes it to commercial, or trying to crack one after getting an early commercial version, so be that NEIPA, Milkshake IPA's, Peanut stouts, Brut IPA's, using kveik, I'll always try and make sure I get to it first to have a go at brewing it. My wife loved this new hobby, I'd constantly have a list of things I'd like as a present, things to start kegging etc.
I still brew on my old Grainfather (still love this bit of kit), have a mix of fermenters from Brewbucket, Fermentasaurus, GF conical with chiller, and still some plastic buckets and currently experimenting with using old used key kegs for wild and funky beers. Hops really are the cool thing, it helps that I'm an IPA addict, but the real smart thing is yeast, I love wild and funky beers, and there is so much you can do with yeast, thats the thing I love learning more about all the time. I love going to lots of beer festivals, from Indy Man, to Great British to London Craft Beer to BXL, I try to get to as many as I can fit in. Recently started entering a few of the BJCP comps, even did a bit of judging too, this is something I want to more of and get myself in for the exams at some point, but as with most things theres lots to do and just not enough time to do it all.
But thats pretty much me.
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