Any Homebrewers or Meadmakers around here?

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by quirkmanly

I've considered trying some homebrewing here in FL, but my place really isn't conducive to holding a constant temperature. Being a Brit, homebrewing is very familiar to me and back in my teenage days my older brother used to brew a beer that tasted like Boddingtons spiked with hairspray which, after a glass or two, really grew on you.



jsteinhauer, what do you do to keep a constant temp in your brewing set-up?

Oh yes, and thanks to Schultzy I am now an IPA fiend

Well, if you noticed, I live in Minnesota. You can pretty much brew year around here. However, I started brewing in Alabama. I found that I could primarily ferment lagers in my dining room in the summer. If I moved the dining table (with a tablecloth on it) over the air conditioner vent and kept the fermenting bucket or carboy under the table with a damp towel around it I could keep it pretty darn near 50F. Without the damp towel you're in the 60'sF. If you have a wife, SO that won't allow, you're screwed, but it can be done.

About 8 years ago, my wife and I took a trip to London armed with the CAMRA guide to good pubs. It was a fantastic trips. Our favorites were The Market Porter near the Tower Bridge and the Head of Steam, which was above one of the big stations. We were still on a budget at that stage in our lives and we stayed in the Earl's Court area. We also took daytrips to York, where we visited a fine brewery that had self-proclaimed "apathetic" witches as tour guides and Burton-upon-Trent, where the tour of the Bass museum and a visit to the Burton Bridge brewpub were high points of the trip.

I must admit, at that time, we felt much more welcome outside of London at that time. We could definitely tell that Londoners held Americans in disfavor. If only they had taken the time to find out we were not there as tourists, only as drinkers of genuine British Real Ale.