Hi everyone
I just wanted to say hi to those who remember me and introduce myself to those who don’t. I used to be here quite a bit from 2014-2017 I believe. I have not been brewing much the past couple of years due to busyness mostly. Mostly good stuff: doing a lot of work to improve our land for growing more food, home improvements and other interests, mostly food related.
I thought I would come back here for inspiration to start brewing regularly again. I make a lot of mead and, in good apple years, cider. For beer I have a typical cooler mash tun set up. I made a kegerator with two taps and both keg and bottle.
My main obstacle, especially for brewing beer, is that I don’t have a dedicated space so have to drag everything outside through the house from the cellar. I live in Barre Ma so winter stops me as I can’t run a hose. My wife and I are seriously considering building a barn with a brewery and possibly a commercial kitchen. That would be huge.
I have been making mead since I met my wife in 2007 (she has been a mead maker since the 90s) and brewing beer since 2009.
Right now I have 20 gallons of cider fermenting that I got from a friend who runs a local orchard. Four five gallon batches that I am doing different things to: one wild ferment, one with crabapple, one hopped, etc. I also just extracted 50 pounds of honey from our hives and will be starting some mead soon.
I will likely be posting quite a bit in the food and gardening threads. I cooked professionally for many years and since I no longer cook professionally I live for cooking and growing food. We have an outdoor clay oven we built and stone grill and have large vegetable and herb gardens, a small orchard an bees. I don’t consider brewing a separate hobby but rather part of this larger hobby.
Cheers,
Pete
