I live on the northside of the city, but work in the western suburbs. If you ever out in that direction, check out Malloy's finest in Naperville, just off of Ogden ave. They have pretty good prices and always have a good beer selection. Ask for Collin, he is their beer guy and can let you in on what they might not yet have out on the floor or what they may be expecting in the coming weeks.
So what do you guys got coming up? What have you made recently? Me, I did an old ale two weeks ago and I'm brewing up a Belgian Dark Strong with homemade candi syrup tomorrow. Also made a gallon of cider and a gallon of a huge Cyser (3/4 gallon of apple juice and 3lbs of Mesquite honey) that should be fun.
So, what is everyone's experience level? Extract? Partial? All-grain? How long? What types of beer do you enjoy brewing and why? What do you have trouble with?
For me, 3.5 yrs and only all-grain. I brew just about everything and in the middle of my big beer schedule with a Belgian Dark strong this weekend an a Russian Imperial Stout upcoming, as well as a Flanders red before I roll into a few Boh Pils. My current favorite style to brew is Duesseldorf Alt purely for the beauty that a great one is. That and I love doing decoctions!
I just spent the weekend planting 10 hop rhizomes in a patch of land owned by a friend in Charleston, IL. we constructed a trellis for fairly cheap. We saved a boat load of money on the lumber - go to your local big box hardware store and ask for a "damaged lumber" discount. We were able to find four 16' pressure treated 4x4s that were slightly warped. The 16" posts were originally 20 dollars...we paid about 3 dollars with a 85% off "damage" discount. These posts don't have to be super straight...just high enough to support the growth of the hop bines. And, these poles were only sligh
Here is a recipe that I've brewed in the past that has always come out well. It's setup for a final yield of about 10 gallons...Cutting all ingredient amounts in half will work for a 5 Gal batch. There is also an extract 5 gal version towards the bottom.
Recipe Type: All Grain Yeast: Kolsch or US-05 Yeast Starter: Slurry Batch Size (Gallons): 10
