Brewcommune

I've been to a few of the Rogue Pubs. It seems to me that they stopped caring a while ago. Dirty, dank and their beers stopped be innovative about 15 years ago. Virtually across the street from the SFO Rogue Pub, La Trappe is a true beer gem. http://latrappecafe.com/. One of the greatest beer destin...

In Salzburg, I recommend the Augustiner brewery/monastery. http://www.augustinerbier.at/index.php?id=brauerei_augustiner&L=1 They have a great beer garden and some good food. It's right in the heart of the old city. I had a great time there. In Munich, I would highly recommend Hofbrauhaus. http:...

Update: OCEric graciously invited me to observe his brewing prowess back in January (turns out we had much more than beer in common). Since then I've read a few books, listened to more podcasts than I can count and brewed two all grain batches: a Bell's Two Hearted Ale clone and a Wee Heavy. I am fi...

Thanks for the input. It was in the primary for about 9 days. I had vigorous activity within 12 hours for about 3 days and by today, the air lock was barely bubbling about once every 8 seconds.

I will definitely dry hop with a sanitized hop bag.

I can't wait to get the second batch underway.

I moved my first batch into the secondary today. Everything smelled great! I'm using a 5 gal corny as the secondary. I have a few questions: 1) Is it necessary to bleed off CO2 daily? I've heard that there may be some adverse results if the beer has too much CO2 running around during fermentation bu...

I'm setting up BrewSmith and one thing I want to get right is the water profile. I pulled up my local water report (http://www.cityoforange.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=7335) but I can't figure out how to calculate HCO3 (Bicarbonate) from the stated statics. Can anyone help? I pulled up ...

Thank you for all the encouraging responses and advice. I will definitely try to attend a meeting. Brew Captain - I'd love to sit in on a session. I don't know that I will be able to make it on a Wednesday but let me know anyway, I might be able to work something out. Backyard Brewer - Let me know w...

My friend and I have been talking about getting into home brewing for a while. We recently decided to jump head first and purchase a ten gallon all grain system. I was hoping I could connect with a local (I'm in Old Town Orange) home brewer who be willing to help my friend and I through our first fe...