TOPIC:

Hi all, just thought I'd post my first message and introduce myself, my name's Mark and I'm from Dublin, I've just entered the exciting world of homebrew about a month ago starting with a small "Mr Beer" beer kit - I said I'd give it a go after I became a very big fan of some fine brews in both the Porterhouse and Messrs Maguire's. My first batch of pale ale that came with the Mr Beer kit turned out reasonably well, the head was fine, it fermented OK, but it wasnt very drinkable, it became over-carbonated in the bottles & it didnt taste great from the start, even after 3 weeks in the fermenter/2 weeks conditioning it tasted odd - I guess this was because the water I used was tap water i.e: heavily chlorinated, but now after whipping up my 2nd batch tonight I'm using bottled water so this time hopefully I'll get better results. I love English-style ales, bitters and other dark beers like Bocks, but there just aint enough pubs in this country willing to take a chance away from the mainstream brand muck, so as of today I've upgraded my equipment to a 25L drum (for want of a better word!) which came with some other "tools" and I'm about to start combining cans of extract and some other ingedients to see what happens. Hopefully in time I'll get into mashing and all-grain brewing as I [b:7uorfpny]really [/b:7uorfpny]want to try to make a clone of Fullers ESB/London Pride (2 favourites of mine!) but for the minute I'll stick to using extract, til I become a bit more competent! Slainte! <!-- s8) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="" title="Cool" /><!-- s8) -->

Welcome to the community, Mark, you'll never leave <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

Hi, I'm Dave (KJ on boards.ie) <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

Welcome aboard Dave.

Hey, how's it going guys?

I can't believe that I only stumbled across this place now. It's good to see an Irish site dedicated to craft beer.

I'm hoping to take up home brewing myself. Hopefully I'll get some pointers here.

I look forward to talking to you guys.

Take it easy.

Welcome aboard, Dave. Have a flick through the Knowledge Base[/url:1us2n3os] articles, and any questions: just ask.