Hi folks!
Eoin from North Cork (kanturk-ish) here.
Just in case I end up staying here, i might aswell introduce myself i suppose...
I've not been brewing beer for long, about 3 months.
Ended up getting a couple of home brew kits from homebrewwest to help a mate have an awesome birthday, and ended up keeping them on the go...
My brewing journey started a long time ago in a galaxy far away...
Basically, the family home has a load of apple and pear trees out the back, so by the time I found out what alca-ma-hol was i was smashing apples into juice and sticking it into 250ml cola cadet bottles. After a few weeks that stuff was amazing, ready to explode sour fizzy nonsense goodness.
I'm going to have to try it again this autumn. No added yeast, water or sugar. Pure organic... i can still taste it.
but i digress...
Later on, I started making basic fizzy ginger beer from a recipe found off the interwebs (basically ginger+sugar+lemon+water+breadyeast+2l_cokebottle=win. It's maths, therefore it is true).
Then things accidentally got fancy when i moved to the country.
The abundance of autumn fruits ended up turning into sugary liquids and being plonked into demijohns bought from a charity shop and left until they stopped bubbling. By the way, elderberry wine is simple and fantastic...
Later, when the seasons changes and berries became scarce I discovered the 'CraigTube' channel by accident and 'Inmate Brew'. OMG I knew a fiver would go a long way in Lidl, but this brings to a new level (and it is deceptively strong).
I'm acually drinking a wine made from apple juice at the moment to let my beers condition and ferment and it is rocket fuel that tastes like apple drops... Dont let the kids taste it.
Anyway, that pretty much brings me up to the beer...
A mate wanted a home brew to give to people for his birthday as a commemorative bottleof beer. He searched all over and found it was expensive to get someone to make a batch for him, so I offered to make the beer.
Splitsies on all costs, he keeps the first 80 pint bottles, I keep the equipment. Good deal all round.
On one hand, they were my first brew so probably not the best. on the other hand they've been conditioning for a few months now, so probably my best. I'll find out next month athis birthday...
Since then I've been getting to grips with all the different types of sugars/malts/kits/yeasts/hops/etc and made some really nice beers (by the way, i recommend the Coopers Australian Bitter kit and their WheatBeer kit).
Next step, more trying different hops and grains, then maybe a few from scratch... (Anywhere I can get cuttings to grow my on hops?)
Anyway, that's my journey so far. Maybe some day i'll be the next Mr Heineken. Then you'll all bow before me and pay me lots of money
*retreats into the darkness*
