First brewed 16 yrs ago. Just extract back then. But invested in temp control, kegging, etc.
I was starting to make drinkable brews but dropped out of the hobby when 1st child was born.
Started brewing again 4 yrs ago. I build a ghetto all-grain system, found the BN and have made about 50 x 5gal batches and a few mead and cider expirements. I've made huge improvements from all of the knowledge gained from the BrewCasters and Pro guests over the yrs.
My recent quest has been to try mastering hybrid Brew-in-a-bag/partial-mash techniques to minimize the brewday.
Inspired by JZ's descriptions of good extract brews vs. kit & kilo.
This works for many of the styles I brew, but I'm also using lots of things I've learned through the BN:
1) "Brewers make wort - Yeast make beer"
2) Mr. Malty for min pitching rates (hard to overpitch, Thanks JZ)
3) Hot/cold Temp controlled fermentation schedule (rising Tasty method often used)
4) O2 before and during lag is Good, anytime after that BAD (CO2 is cheap, so why not purge)
5) Water adjustments to suite style after diluting my hard water w/ RO (still trying to read Palmer's Water book
)
6) Hop bursting for those big hoppy beers (Sorry J.P.)
