Join Date: 04/22/12
I started brewing about two years ago with extract beers. I brewed for about a year using extract and then I moved onto partial mashing. After doing partial mashing for a while at the beginning of 2012 I transitioned into all grain.
I actually was doing only partial mashes for a while because I thought I had to have a 1.25q strike to 1.5q sparge ratio in order to get a good effenciency. After a while and talking to brewers and homebrew store saff I realized that I could drop down the strike water amount and just sparge until I have my desired boil volume.
I decided after going to all grain to get an igloo cooler mashtun and an outdoor burner. This had really made my brewing a lot easier and quicker in my opinion. This year (2012) I also upgraded to kegging. I still do bottle my bigger beers, being above about about 8%, because I feel like that is a bit dangerous to have on tap :). As for bottling, I just got a bottle tree which is awesome. I have three 6.5 gal glass carboys which aren't necessarily full all the time, but I have reached the point where there are a few boxes of beer sitting down in the basement aging (and giving a lot of beer away, which people don't seem to mind).
I have a tendency to try to make pretty big beers which I try to make on the drier side, although my tastes have been changing recently. On average I would say they range from about 6.5 to 9%. I really like hoppy beers too but I do sometimes get inspired to try to make a lower gravity beer and/or a more balanced one. I have recently acquired a 5 gal oak barrel from a distillery which I have been using to barrel age some stuff too (it's pretty awesome and a good way to expand into another area of brewing). My general recent trends have me making pale ales, IPA's/DIPA's, RIS's, and Barleywines. I have dabbeled in some other styles too but am trying to nail down a solid pale ale recipe at the moment (one that will be sessionable and in the 5% range). I am actually trying to explore more because I haven't made an example of all the styles out there yet. I have made one lager so far but I really don't have a good temp control/refrig available right now.
