So the cider has been bubbling away for about two weeks now and seems to have calmed down and floced a good portion of the yeast so it is time to move on to phase two ( Read more... )

Got a mention in one of the Kansas City beer blogs. Most of the story is about a couple of friends of mine, but ink is ink...http://www.examiner.com/x-21202-Kansas-City-Craft-Beer-Examiner~y2010m5d18-Local-

Today was the Kansas City Bier Meisters Maifest party. I was one of the last events I will be able to attend as a local. There were of course a great abundance of beer. I also took a fair amount of mead with me to get rid of so I do not have to move it to Seattle with me. I drank a bunch and ate a bunch. One of the fun things was that they had ( Read more... )

I have been waiting to find out how I did in the First Round South Regional of the National Homebrew Competition, and they just posted the results. I took second place in 25C Other Fruit MelomelI had high hopes for this year as I was in a different regional than several of the people in the midwest that keep beating me ( Read more... )

Yesterday I actually got that six pounds of wheat malt smoked. It actually was a bit easier than I thought it would be. The mesh strainer worked very well for holding the grain. I did end up putting both batches into a low oven for a bit, just to make sure they were well and truly dry. The grain did not color too much, but there was a small ( Read more... )

Not to whine too much about it, but being unemployed has made my life such in general for the past several months. One of the few indulgences I have allowed myself is to enter homebrew competitions. That has been working out well for me ( Read more... )

I decided that since today was going to be up in the mid 60's here for the first time in a VERY long time, that it would be a perfect day to brew. Yesterday I made my starter and put it on the stir plate. Other than the fact that the 5v power converter lacks the oomph to spin a liter of fluid in a one liter flask, but does just fine on the same ( Read more... )

A while back a friend of mine in the homebrew club died and they have been splitting up his brew gear. Since I did not know him as well as some others, they got first pick, which was fine with me. One of the other people grabbed a 3 gallon corney keg which I had my eye on. I did get a couple of five gallon kegs out of the deal so I did not bitch ( Read more... )

Well I got my money back from Uncle Sam and despite the fact that I really need to be a grown up and use all of the money to pay bills I am going to blow some of it on supplies to brew a couple batches of beer ( Read more... )

I have often joked that there is a bit of "That Guy You Knew In High School That Could Build A Bong Out Of Anything" in most homebrewers. A quick thumb through the annual gadgets issue of either Zymergy or Brew Your Own magazines will confirm this. I have had my eye on a project for quite some time now, building a magnetic stir plate ( Read more... )