Humble beginnings

Brewing beer didn't seem like it would be a big deal, in the beginning. I'd been making wine for years, and I was sure that between the two of us, we could figure it out. Plus, beer kits cost only a fraction of the wine kits I was using. So, in August 2011, we picked up a $15 kit in a can (wort concentrate) and tried our hand at it. Supposedly it was a Czech Pilsner, but it tasted pretty flat. But it was carbonated and had alcohol in it, so it was something. I drank the lion's share of that, but my tastes are slightly less discerning then Earl's.

At the time, we deemed the first batch a failure. It resembled beer, but it wasn't something we really wanted to drink. Should we try another kit? No... that wasn't going to cut it. After watching a few videos on YouTube, we scheduled a day off and starting piecing together a water cooler mash tun. The next batch was going to be all-grain or nothing!

After sampling the first all grain batch, a rational outsider would easily conclude that we should have gone with 'nothing.' A huge hop blast covered up some of the off flavours, but the beer was totally flat. The second batch was even worse; it tasted awful AND was dead flat. The third batch ended up on the floor, after a hardware failure on our mash tun just prior to lautering. At this point, our first batch didn't seem like such a failure.

Despite the setbacks, we kept at it. With some friendly help, we vastly improved our mash tun and lautering setup. One problem remained though; why didn't our last two (non-floor) batches carbonate?  Neither Earl nor I wanted to run the risk of another flat batch, so we did the only thing we could do... we upgraded to a kegging system!  (Thanks boys, kegging stuff was one of the best birthday presents I've ever gotten!)  Also, who wants a warm keg of beer?  Europeans!  As we don't live in Europe, a kegerator was necessary.

Apparently my phone camera is equally bad.

Our fourth batch might taste terrible, but at least it would be cold and fizzy!