BrewBrain Sports Investing

Well, it’s official.  The homebrew thing is a hit.  After tasting these first two batches for myself, I was thinking it would be.  I’ve passed quite a few bottles from my first two batches around and the reviews have been all positive.  Of course, some people may just be too nice to give me a bad review, but I don’t think that’s the case.  I think they are good beers.  These two beers were from recipes I found on the internet.  The big question now is:  Can I create a decent recipe of my own?  The jury is out.

Like the impatient idiot I am, I couldn’t wait the allotted time for my amber ale to carbonate and age.  I opened up a bottle the other night, eleven short days after bottling.  It hissed a bit when I popped the cap, but that’s about it.  There were no bubbles.  The ESB did the same thing and it turned out great, so I’m not worried.  Well, maybe just a little.  I’m definitely waiting another week before I test another bottle.  That’ll be three weeks, and they should be pretty well carbed by then.  If not, I’ll tip them over and re-suspend the yeast that’s settled out.

OK, so back to the title of this post.  I’ve found a lot of people who like to drink real beer.  I have quite a few beer drinking friends, and it turns out quite a few people at work like a good brew as well.  A lot of the fun of brewing is sharing the bounty around.  I think I’ll have to increase production to keep up with demand (or at least my offers of supply:).  If I go to 10 gallons, it won’t be any more work to speak of, and I can give half of the good beer away and still have plenty to keep me fed for the summer.  I’m going to try to brew quite a bit over the winter and not so much when my closet is warmer in the summer.

The pale ale seems to be the bigger hit.  Since it is such a simple recipe where the flavors are easy to decipher, I think I’ll use that as a base recipe and brew it several times, changing one ingredient each time.  It will be a great way to learn how the different grains and hops affect the flavor and appearance of the beer.  Plus, I’m almost guaranteed to get a lot of really good ales out of the learning experience.

So, I am going to be pricing bigger brew pots.  Mine is barely sufficient for a 5-gallon batch as it is.  I’ll be on the lookout for a 15-gallon pot.  I’ll probably order one on-line.  That should be all I need, other than maybe another bucket or two.  My mash tun is plenty big enough.  In fact, it is better suited to the bigger batches.  I might not lose so much heat with more volume in the grain bed.