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Beer.... ahhhhhhhhh that intoxicating mixture of malted barley, hops and water. It all began a while back with one of those, "Make Beer at Home!!" kits you can buy through those zany catalogs we all seem to get in our mailboxes. It looked cool. I though, "I can make my own beer!!!! Everyone will envy me!!!!". I was wrong at first. I followed the directions to the T, but my end product was a watered down mess that sort of resembled beer. I persevered. Enter self education. I began reading many books on the subject and made many batches of the crazy mixture. I looked at it as my own self-therapy, there I was like a mad scientist with all my mad tools in my mad science lab. I boiled and poured and waited and waited some more untill I had...BEER!!!!.
Besides the ability to concoct some crazy brews, ("Lucifer's Apple Honey Black as Hell Stout" which was very thick, filling, and an amazing 10% ABV) I saved alot of money. If you have ever priced a six-pack of microbrew then you've noticed the hefty price tag. Yes, quality beer comes with a price and it was a price I wasn't willing to pay.
I remember the first book I read which put it all together Charlie Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing". This is the first book I would recommend to anyone interested in homebrewing. It took me by the hand and walked me through beginning, intermediate, and advance brewing methods. It also answered all my, "but what if?" questions. From what I understand, you can get the book on CD-ROM with cool videos and such. Anyhow, I would like to share a few of my favorite recipes and also some links to related sites on the web.
CHEERS!