I'm new here. Let me give some background...
Homebrewed from kits and extract back in the late 1970s and early 80s (student days). Lived in Japan for many years and watched the country turn from a four-brewery desert into a nation of microbrews â but I never brewed there myself, despite having friends who did.
In the early to mid 1990s I was a partner in Tall Ship Ale Company, a now defunct microbrewery in BC, Canada. (Remnants of our website can still be found with a google search, even though we went under 15 years ago.) But I was just a financial partner â so had nothing to do with the brewing of our fantastic IPA and other beers.
Now living in Portugal (for the past eight years). When we moved here, I vowed to begin brewing again â but until now I was caught up with learning how to make wine from our grapes (and how to distill grape residue into aguadente/grappa).
So now I've finally got around to it... Last week I brewed my first ever all-grain and my first homebrew since around 1980. My basic information source is Graham Wheeler's "Brew Your Own Real Ale At Home", a 1993 CAMRA publication.
All went reasonably well, but I realised that I have a lot to learn yet! I stopped sparging too early (or at least I'm guessing so) and ended up with an OG of close to 1050 instead of 1040. And I found I don't have a good way to cool my wort â so I think I'll have to get a copper coil or something made up. And then I had trouble getting the hops from the wort â tried using my mash tun (modified cooler box) as a hopback, but ended up clogging the tap...
Now I'm looking forward to a second batch and working on some improvements.
Anyway, I'm sure this bitter/pale that is in process will be orders of magnitude better than the local Portuguese beers!
That's my story!
Happy New Year to all the brewers out there... I wish you good brews in 2013!
Steve
Homebrewed from kits and extract back in the late 1970s and early 80s (student days). Lived in Japan for many years and watched the country turn from a four-brewery desert into a nation of microbrews â but I never brewed there myself, despite having friends who did.
In the early to mid 1990s I was a partner in Tall Ship Ale Company, a now defunct microbrewery in BC, Canada. (Remnants of our website can still be found with a google search, even though we went under 15 years ago.) But I was just a financial partner â so had nothing to do with the brewing of our fantastic IPA and other beers.
Now living in Portugal (for the past eight years). When we moved here, I vowed to begin brewing again â but until now I was caught up with learning how to make wine from our grapes (and how to distill grape residue into aguadente/grappa).
So now I've finally got around to it... Last week I brewed my first ever all-grain and my first homebrew since around 1980. My basic information source is Graham Wheeler's "Brew Your Own Real Ale At Home", a 1993 CAMRA publication.
All went reasonably well, but I realised that I have a lot to learn yet! I stopped sparging too early (or at least I'm guessing so) and ended up with an OG of close to 1050 instead of 1040. And I found I don't have a good way to cool my wort â so I think I'll have to get a copper coil or something made up. And then I had trouble getting the hops from the wort â tried using my mash tun (modified cooler box) as a hopback, but ended up clogging the tap...
Now I'm looking forward to a second batch and working on some improvements.
Anyway, I'm sure this bitter/pale that is in process will be orders of magnitude better than the local Portuguese beers!
That's my story!
Happy New Year to all the brewers out there... I wish you good brews in 2013!
Steve
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