Hola

This is my first time as a blogger. I'm a homebrewer that has a "basement brewery." This basically means that I brew beer, create labels and have names for the beers I create. I am a teacher, and while I've dreamt of bigger things with my beer hobby, I really just want to have fun with it. I've gotten more serious about brewing, but haven't entered competions or anything and mostly try to brew good beer for my friends and myself. I've been homebrewing for about 3 or 4 years. I started my hobby after buying a kit for my dad. I lived a few blocks away from Northern Brewer in St. Paul, a very well known homebrew supply shop. I started with a Kolsch kit and fell in love ever since.

My brewing became more of an obsession once my wife and I bought a house with a basement complete with a 50s style canning kitchen. This proved to be the impetus for a lot of brewing. The hobby took off as friends liked my beer and I became more passionate about brewing and creating labels. I've always been artistic, but this was a format to really be creative. A lot of homebrewers get into making labels and naming their beers, and after seeing some of the labels that have won competions, I'm inspired to get good at labels as well.

I spent one summer brewing quite a few kits and decided to try to write my own recipe. I made my first "from scratch" beer, Bearded Fury Pale Ale, and it turned out really well. So after that I slowly weaned myself off kits and creating my own recipes. I've tried a number of different styles and have made several beers multiple times. My next major move was to go from Extract brewing to partial mashing. This meant more time, but allowed me to have more control. I read a great brewing book that really broke it down to an easy format.

My most popular beers are:

Bearded Fury Pale Ale - A standard Pale Ale, that is dry hopped with Fuggle Hops. Not as hoppy as an American Pale Ale, and many non-hopheads really enjoy it.

Inky's White Ale- a beer I created for my wife. At the First Annual Bearded Brewfest, this was the most popular choice. A pretty standard Belgian White.

El Muerto- This started off as a clone of Dead Guy Ale by Rogue Brewery, but has since changed and continues to change. I love the label as do a lot of people and I keep having a change of heart in terms of what I want this beer to be. It's going to change again the next time I make it. Basically its a malty, hoppy amber ale.

Burning Beard Belgian Ale- This is another white beer, but this one (orginally named Bangy Tangy Belgian Ale) is made with orange marmalade and a pound of cranberries. It's a tart, tangy belgian beer.

Whitefish Cranberry Wheat- I make this wheat beer from 2 pounds of cranberries. I've made it once and it was awsome. I'm looking forward to making it again. This is my "christmas beer."

I've made a lot of other beers and they will eventually find their way onto this blog, along with pics of my labels.

I'll update more, and include recipes and other things as I get more into this blogging thing.

Peace.

The Bearded Brewer