I am sure you are just loving reading this blog.  You enjoy my topics, my writing style, my sense of humor... but, yet, you still want more.  You need more homebrewing knowledge.  This measly little blog just ain't cuttin' it!  Well, my friends, your prayers have been answered.  Today I am going to discuss some brewing books which helped me along the way and are some I think can help anyone who wants to learn to brew or create new recipes. 1.   How to Brew by John Palmer My well-worn copy of How to Brew by John Palmer. If you want to learn to brew (or brew better), this is the must-have, quintessential, no-nonsense guide to brewing.  Palmer takes the brewing process step by step, starting with extract and working his way up through all-grain brewing.  It is extremely helpful for the new brewer and is a great resource for the veteran. A vast majority of the chapters are purely about brewing - mostly extract at the beginning, but he goes ...

So, at a homebrew meeting a few months back, someone brought in a Citra IPA (citra being the hops he used).  The beer was fantastic.  I'm not a beer judge, so I don't have all the fancy language to describe its flavor, but, just trust me, it was good.  At that moment, Eric and I decided we would try to brew a Citra IPA. We worked out a recipe based off of our previous IPA batches, switched up the hops to include 80% citra, and went at it.  Round 1 went pretty well.  But we didn't nail it.  Our IPA was good, don't get me wrong, but it was too bitter.  The 20% "other" we used brought that bitterness to the party.  We decided to go for Round 2 and use 100% citra hops.  We reworked the recipe and took the list to the store.  Well, at Weak Knee Homebrew, they didn't have enough citra hops for what we wanted to do.  I had to make a judgement call on the fly and decided to pick up a couple of ounces of chinook hops.  Was that ever t...

Or, as I wanted to name the this post, "How to Put a Hole in a Perfectly Good Pot."  I feel like the current title is more constructive.  So, that will be the topic for today: drilling a hole in your stainless steel pot for a ball valve. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous going into this project.  I read enough to know that I could royally screw up something, namely, the pot.   That is what I would have cared about.  A drill bit?  So what.  A 32-quart stainless steel pot?  That's another story. Equipment for drilling a hole. After reading up on this, Eric came over this past Saturday afternoon and we headed into the project.  After discussing our process, we decided the mantra for the day would be "patience."  And patience did pay off. To the right you will see the equipment I used.  Some of the more normal things I hope you recognize: a pot, a tape measure, a drill, safety glasses, a sharpie.  Also I have a met...

Money shot.  At the beginning, nonetheless. So, while I am waiting on the rest of my valves to come in and while I am putting off drilling a hole in my very nice, very expensive brew pot, I needed a post.  Since we are still in the beginning stages of this blog, I figure looking back some more is not all that bad.  So, since I reasoned myself to this point, this post will be about my kegerator which I built in August of 2011. Now, a kegerator is typically a beer lover's dream come true.  Draft beer at your fingertips.  Ready to go at a moment's notice.  Unfortunately, buying a pre-made kegerator can be expensive and you usually can't get exactly what you want.  So, many homebrewers and beer lovers have converted an old fridge to serve such a purpose. Some people use chest freezers (and convert them to "keezers") and build a collar around the top to give some extra head space for kegs, as well as giving a convenient place to put faucets without ...

So, while Eric and I are figuring out our mash tun and boil kettle situation, I decided it would be good to go ahead and purchase/create some things I know we want.  One benefit of this is I can use it now for extract batches until we get up and running with the all-grain setup. The first thing I invested in was the quick disconnects (QDs from here on out) and high-temp tubing.  The QDs are sold in 2 pieces, male and female connections.  They are simple enough to install, assuming that all your sizes are compatible.  Since everything was 1/2", I was golden.  Funny how things like that work when you plan ahead.  Anyways, I just slipped the barb from the female QD into the hose and clamped it on with a screw clamp.  Simple as that. I got three hoses, so six female connections.  All it took was a screw driver.  I got a few male connections which will be attached to mash tun, boil kettle, and the pump.  There are a couple of them...