I'm new here, just wanted to say hi. Been brewing since early this year when my friend from Oregon got me a crapload of brewing equipment for my wedding present (all I had to buy was a boil-pot, a stirring spoon a primary bucket, and a second triple bubbler and stopper). He even bought me some pre-milled grain, dex, caps, and a capper so I could bottle my first two batches.
First batches went ok, (extract with steeped grain), but one got an infection. Tightened up my sanitation and haven't had an infection since.
I've been all-grain for four batches now. First two were a bit messed up (my fault), but I've tightened up my process and the last two have so far turned out great. My stout (59 bottles), and my amber (57 bottles) are currently bottle priming but I hit my OG's and FG's on the dot and my boil-volumes were spot on. The fermented product tastes great even if it isn't carbonated yet. As usual I'm jonesing for carbonation to complete. Damn bottle conditioning.
Got 4 cornies for christmas,... next build is a keezer. (Yep, it's an obsession)...
In the meantime to feed the obsession since a keezer is a bit out of my price range right now I'm going to build a stir-plate this weekend.
Been buying my grains/hops/kit at noble grape so far. Got those 4 cornies on a bogo deal so paid for two... basically turns out to be about $30.00 a pop for tested coke cornies with new seals and o-rings. Not a bad price.
A brew-friend of mine turned me on to this board... looks like I'm going to pay my dues and become a paying member
. So that leads me to a question, I'm willing to pay the $20.80 that it's gonna cost to become a member of the FCBA (I'd be stupid not to), but I'd rather not use paypal and snail-mailing a cheque for $20.80 is a pain in the rear... Can someone take interac email money transfer?
. I noticed you're at the BMO, and BMO has interac email money transfers. You could direct deposit the transfer into the community account. I'd be happy to do this.
Also, since I'm without grain-mill bulk buys are a touch useless for me, I don't really have the cash to outlay for a grain mill at the moment (and NG mills my grains for free)... is there a "community mill", or would someone be willing to let me mill my grain using their mill on a semi-frequent basis ? (I only brew when I know my pipeline's going to go dry, so it wouldn't be that often, or that much).