I could say I've been brewing beer at home for 15 years, but that would be a stretch of the truth. In fact, I brewed my first batch 15 years ago and have done several since then, but in fact I haven't fired up my brewpot in over 5 years.
When I moved to Jacksonville, FL, I tried a couple of batches but never had the success I did when I was in Minnesota. All factors influence the quality of your brew and in my case I blamed the water. Even after adding gypsum, I think the naturally soft water caused my troubles; in one case resulting in several ruptured bottles.
Now that I'm back 'up north', I'm looking forward to brewing again. I have been a bottle beer brewer, but I really want to make the move to kegging my homebrew. That of course entails a significant investment in corny kegs, CO2 systems and refrigeration. I've got it all planned out, but shortage of stainless steel corny's and the overhead involved in building my own freezerator has slowed me down.
There are still a lot of decisions to be made. I've been a stove-top extract brewer but I'd like to move to at least a partial mash and ideally a full mash brew. This expands the options to include decisions on gas vs electric, infusion vs RIMS and HERMS; even kettle selection, sanitation, LOCATION all need careful consideration.
I'll be documenting my thoughts and plans as I get back into brewing.
