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...

So, I purchased the IPA book.  I was in a mental bind about whether to get this book or the new Hops book, which is part of the Brewing Elements series.  I posted about my delima on various social networks: "which one should I get?"  To which the reply was mixed.  Get this one if you want this, get that one if you want that.  So, to make a short story boring, I bought both of them - but read the IPA book first.  (Have not yet gotten to the Hops book.  Can you say, "future post"?) I chose the IPA book because it is more in line with what I want to brew and learn.  I want to brew a good IPA, and to a lesser extent, a good pale ale.  I figured the Hops book would talk about hops in each style, growing, selecting varieties, etc.  Not what I am wanting now.  So, on with the IPA! The book goes in depth in to the history of the India Pale Ale style, going way back in history to its roots.  It tracks the evolution through the ...

Waxing bottles looks bad ass.  I think almost everyone will agree to that.  So, when our homebrew club racked out the Russian Imperial Stout from the Maker's Mark barrel , Eric and I decided to bottle (who needs that on a keggerator?), label, and wax cap our share.  Coming up with a name is post all its own - as is labeling, so I won't talk about that here.  What most people want to know about is how to wax.  I found a very helpful post over on Passion Beer's website and we followed their example.   I'll walk you through our steps and give you our details.  We were going to wax about 48 bottles. 1.  You need crayons.  We used 12 Crayola crayons.  There were cheaper options, but I decided on quality.  I hear that when school supplies hit in the fall, these 8-packs are about 25 cents.  I ended up paying 79 cents for these.  But now I can do this seven more times. 2.  You need hot glue gun sticks. ...

I am an all-grain, fermentation-controlled, kegging homebrewer (with other bells and whistles thrown in there, too).  But I didn't start out that way.  I was thinking about my progression as a homebrewer and wondering if I would change anything about my journey (hindsight is 20/20).  So, I made a list of my progression.  The list below doesn't contain every gadget or step, and some steps include multiple purchases/equipment, but it hits key milestones.  Here is a brief overview of how I have progressed so far as a homebrewer: Extract on the stove top Wort chiller Turkey fryer/Burner for outdoor use Kegerator Pump Fermentation control Yeast starters All-grain (all the equipment at once) Plate Chiller Oxygenation system So, what would I change?  How would I choose to progress now that I am more advanced?  Or, I guess a pertinent question also is, where did I get the most bang for my buck?  What was most worth the money?  Below is m...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I didn't think my Pumpkin Ale had enough spice character to it.  The general process for adding spices, which we followed, is to add them with 5 to 0 minutes left in the boil.  You can add them earlier or later, but adding them around knockout is the general practice.  Some spices or flavors (like vanilla) can be added to the secondary. Some whole spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. But, I don't really want to make this a "how to" spice post.  I am no expert in the world of spices.  I can just tell you what I did when my beer had too little spice.  I wanted to add more.  But more of what?  And how much more?  Since I keg, dumping in a bottle of ground cinnamon would've been easy, but over-spicing is really, really easy to do and it can ruin a batch of beer.  ( Please note, a bottle of ground cinnamon IS too much to add to 5 gallons of beer. )  I wanted a way I could add a little bit of spi...