I would love a thread dedicated to homebrew.

And you met Michael Jackson? And Charlie Papazian? Fucking awesome! I have exactly two heroes in life: Steve Wozniak, and Charlie Papazian. I was devastated when Michael Jackson died -- his reviews led me to so many different kinds of beers, it just ain't funny. Half of what I know about beer came from him, and the other half from Papazian.

I'm currently working on two specific beers: one is a Mac and Jack's clone, which I call "Last of the Fireflies Ale," because of the time of year I brew it (late summer). The second is one I call "Mean Porter," because I took as many Porter recipes as I could find, and averaged them. Now I'm tweaking it a bit, playing with different yeasts and hops, while leaving the grain bill as constant as I can.

The DME was to keg my current batch of Fireflies (which I should've kegged last weekend). It was in with a box of grain for my Mean Porter. I'm just really glad Roscoe didn't get into the grains; that would've pissed me off no end.

I really need to slow down on the beer. One a night would be a good rate -- I think you have it right. I'm attempting to get into shape now (though I swear to you I am never going to drink Muscle Milk -- how can you stand that stuff?)  Well, by "get into shape," I mean, "Not wheeze like a broken accordian as I climb the stairs."

Finally: there's a show called "Brewmasters"?

With Charlie Papazian at a home brewing competition:

With Michael Jackson after the Book and the Cook at Monks Cafe, Philadelphia:

I was 22 at the time.

    I just brewed my first batch 2 weeks ago. I never realized how fun it is! I have been reading all kinds of recipies, and ways to brew. There is so much information and technics. Think I will keep it simple untill I find my own style and technic.

    My girlfriends parents (from Finland) make wine, and Im dabbling in that as well....FUN FUN!!!

The heavy stouts and porters are the only styles I find myself staying away from.  The syrupy, rich, dark, bold, bitters, etc... all tend to slow me up, forcing me to drink much slower.  With the right accompaniment I could see having one.  I would find myself pairing something like that with a piece of double fudge chocolate cake... or something of the sort.  Do you pair yours with anything particular?  

I find myself fantasizing often about an espresso or coffee type stout/porter that would pair well with desert.  In all my tastings I've never had one that fits the bill.  Anyone know of a match?

I'm Belgian. I love American tourists coming here.

American tourist : "Hey kid, what's a really good beer ? Nothing too strong, mind."

Me : "Try a Duvel....that's kinda like budweiser "

American tourist : "Thanks !"

Me : "You gotta drink it through a straw. It's a tradition."

Fun !

 Ahhh Rich.... that smooth German wheat beer.  It's what American shit beer could be if it wasn't shit beer.  Those are all good.  I had always liked the Paulaner but the two you picked are great. Do you drink the Belgian equivalent?

Well, I have done a few batches of extract brewing. From a kit that has everything in one box. That was a huge pain in the ass for marginal results.

It took a couple or three weeks to get two gallons of what was, in the end, about as creative as making a cake from a cardboard box. If you follow the directions, then pretty much nothing will go really wrong but that does not mean that it will go right either. That and the production rate is low enough that it simply cannot take me “off the grid” for buying the nice microbrews that I can buy a few hundred varieties of two blocks from my apartment.

I would love to get back into the craft but only if I could do it in a way that I could really do the job on my own. That and I would have to make some marginal batches so that I could learn what really does not work because using a recipe is only marginally better than buying a can of what someone else thinks will make a good beer.

That much being said, I find it much easier to make my own vinegars. You don't need much in the way of equipment for that and you really only need to make a few bottles a year to do it right. Just find some cheap unpasteurized and unfiltered vinegar with slimy shit floating in it. The slimy shit is the active culture.

You don't need expensive wine (actually, that is kind of a waste because the stronger flavors in cheap wine make a better IMHO product). Just don't get wine so cheap that it has a screw cap. Wine that is properly corked will not have anywhere near the level of preservatives which will kill the culture.

Well, I really would rather not use a recipie. As a fairly successful cook (40+ years behind the stove), I view recipes as tools for those who do not know how to cook. That much being said, I really don't know how to make beer and I would need something of a jump start.

I bought both of the Papazian books and read through them but not at the same time as I had there gear, so I was not able to do all that much when I had them.

As far as making an accidental batch of malt vinegar goes, I doubt that your yeast was at fault. If I remember Papazian correctly, the sludge in the bottom of the bottles of good monastery brewed ale is live yeast that has gone dormant from the alcohol content. If yeast could do that, then a good number of bottles of that stuff would go over before it was sold.

Most probably, it was your hops that did the job. You see, to make vinegar, you need acetobacter xylinum which is a member of the domain prokaryote/bacteria kingdom. Brewers yeast is a member of the domain eukaryote/fungus kingdom.

Since yours grows outdoors, it was almost certainly infected with acetobacter. In fact, if you don't want to hunt down a grody looking bottle of vinegar, then find someone who grows grapes. Just before the harvest, bring two wine bottles, one of them empty and a funnel. Pour the wine over the grapes on the vine and into the empty bottle and you should have a decent source of acetobacter. Purpose bought yeast should be reasonably free of acetobacter contamination (by reasonably free, I mean so free that you can expose whatever is in the container to a food source and it will not develop, so pretty much lab grade pure).