I home brew, it helps me enjoy other beers

As part of my hobby as a beer drinker, I also home brew. Starting about a year and a half ago, I decided to try it out. For around 200 dollars I got my brewing set up, 48 brown bottles, and a partial mash chocolate stout recipe. And I was hooked. since starting I have upgraded to all grain brewing and have hopes of going from bottles to kegs! The kegs are dream I keep thinking about and hope to acquire soon.

Brewing beer is awesome! It is not for everyone, there is a lot of cleaning, sanitizing, waiting, cleaning, and more waiting...a lot of waiting...did I mention...waiting! But to drink something that was made by your hands, and to have it be tasty is just a great feeling! On top of that everyone is always excited to see home brew at parties and get togethers. I have brewed a the chocolate stout mentioned above, a few wheat beers, a blonde ale, an oaked IPA, as well as a 8.4% honey wheat...it was killer!

I have found that brewing has made me appreciate commercially available beers more, as well as figure out which styles I prefer to drink. An example is that I use to not drink barley wine beers or big IPA's, but as it turns out there are a ton of IPA's that I really enjoy! I use to drink malty, creamy, heavy beers(like drinking a loaf of bread) and now I have found my tastes have moved to the hoppier varieties. As far as barley wine beers go, the only one I can drink with out too much pain the next day is Monster Ale, by Brooklyn Brewery.

My favorite IPA right now, and I no not every one likes this one, is Happy Camper, put out by Santa Fe Brewing. It has this crazy pine cone hoppiness to it that can be a bit shocking on the first drink, but is very pleasant and refreshing. It is a change in direction from all the super citrus tasting hopped beers out there. It is not a hop bomb that makes you lick the roof of you mouth and smack your lips, but at around 6% it is very easy drinking and refreshing for a hot hot summer day or hot hot fall day...

I would have to say the Stone Brewing is my favorite company right now. Everything they put out is solid and worth the extra pennies! Right now they have a beer that is a mix of a Belgian Trippel and a Californian IPA...oh my it is sooooo.....good!

Happy Drinking!

Joshua