Beer

Homebrew beer has facinated me for probably about three years now, but I have not actually brewed any myself. In fact, I don't even know anybody else who has, so I haven't had a chance to try any. But that hasn't stopped me from wanting to experiment.

Unfortunately, my wife is less enthusiastic about the concept as I am. Perhaps because she doesn't like beer... I know, it should be a crime, right? Everybody should like beer! But anyway, she told me that I wasn't allowed to homebrew until we had a house, so I could let it ferment in the basement.

Well, guess what? We have a house now!

So as soon as there's a free minute (lots of redecorating going on right now), I'll be stopping by a homebrew shop (found one here) to get all the supplies.

In the meantime, though, I've been reading as much as I can about the process, so I'll be able to get it right on my first try. Here are a few sites that I've found that seem to have excellent information:

• How to Brew, by John Palmer, is an online book covering all of the steps in great detail
• Home Brew Forums is a message board for home brewers of various sorts, and includes an active set of forums about brewing beer
• Beer Calculus is a calculator for helping create new recipes
• Paul's Brewing Page is just some guy who does homebrew, but he has a much more complete link listing than this

As for what I will brew for my first batch... Well, I'm torn. Everybody seems to do their first-batch tutorials for pale ales, but I'm not particularly fond of those. I much prefer the darker ales, like Stouts and Porters. Lagers are pretty much out of the question, since they require so much extra care and time. So I still need to read more to discover whether brewing a stout is any more difficult than brewing a pale ale.