Few things get me as excited as beer.  So, when I heard that Stone Brewing Company was planning to open an east coast brewery (#StoneEast), I got a little excited (being an east-coaster and all).  I got more excited when I read that Myrtle Beach, my current place of residence, was vying for Stone to open up here.  " Pipe dreams, " I thought.  Though, now it was in my brain.  I sooo wanted it to happen. Then I read this article on beerofsc.com  which made me give my hopes up entirely.  Apparently, SC law doesn't even allow for what Stone would want to do: a production brewery with a restaurant.   Nail in the coffin.  I still had hopes Stone would open up somewhere close, like in NC so I could at least visit. But then, some even-keel, open-minded politicians decided SC should change its laws!  By golly!  The result was H.3512 (ok, really, the 'Stone Bill' is an amendment to H.3512, but whatever. You get the point). ...

Not what I mean when I say, "solo." My first South Carolina brew session is behind me. As I mentioned in my previous post, it was a solo brew.  This whole "brew by yourself" is a new thing for me.  While a typical brew day involves conversations over mash tuns and pints of beer over boil kettles, this one was a little different.  Ok, very different.  It was all up to me.  From hitting mash temps to sanitizing a plate chiller, it was all mine to do. "What's the big deal?" you may be asking.  "People do this solo brew thing all the time." Well, yeah, people do brew solo all the time.  But I think having a brew partner is a favorable thing - and it's something I am quite accustomed to. Sharing stories and beers is one of the best things about brewing with someone else.  But division of labor ain't bad either: one can monitor the boil-overs while another cleans the mash tun.  I knew that I wasn't going to have the luxury ...

It has been over a year since I last posted.  For anyone that is (or was) even remotely interested in this stuff, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting.  Life happens.  With a second baby and a move under my belt, I feel like I am finally at a place where I can pick blogging back up. And while I wasn't writing about it for the world wide web to view, I still brewed. I still thought about what to write. I still want to share my experiences in hopes that one of you can relate or maybe even learn a thing or two. Now, since I have moved away from my brew buddy, Eric, the whole brewing process is up to me.  That makes for longer, tougher, more lonely brew days, but it does open up blog post topics.  (Silver lining, I suppose.) So, going forward, expect to see posts about differences in solo and partner brewing. I'll still be brewin' up 10 gallon batches in two separate carboys, so that also opens up a lot of potential. And I am in a whole new area with a whole diff...