Current Brew(s):
American IPA and a Raspberry Wheat

Latest News
Bought a new metal rack for storing brew equioment on shelves instead of everything in
a plastic tote. Easier to get stuff without having to dig to the bottom of the tote
everytime I needed something. Some things are still in the tote, but the major items
are just stored on the shelves.

Welcome to my homebrewing (beer) page. I started homebrewing while stationed in England with the USAF way back in about 1986. I started with simple ales from kits and then progressed to some very dark beers from grains. I brewed several batches while over there. After getting out of the USAF in 1988, my brewing went dormant and I picked it up again in 2005. Brewed an all grain beer that had a nice golden color, but was pretty weak on alcohol. I don't think I used enough grain and/or didn't get a good sparge and missed a lot of the fermentables! Oh well, it looked pretty! Here's a picture...

In April 2008, I brewed a batch of wheat beer that I designed the recipe for. I'd call it a Germerican Wheat beer since I used American malt, a German wheat yeast, along with Liberty and Tettnang hops. I entered it in the 2008 Wisconsin State Fair and took a silver medal in the wheat beer category. Here is the recipe profile for Doctor Hester's Swheat Elixir

Here's the label I made up for the bottles...

On June 8, 2008, I brewed up a batch of English Bitter. It's a Standard/Ordinary Bitter, so I named it English S.O.B. I used 9 pounds of Maris Otter malt, half a pound of Simpson's Medium Crystal and a quarter pound of Briess Special Roast. I collected 6 gallons of wort (pre-boil). I used 1 ounce of East Kent Goldings for 60 minutes and added 1 ounce of East Kent Goldings for the last 10 minutes of the boil. I ended up with about 5.5 gallons post boil to put in the fermenter (glass carboy). I used one packet of Wyeast Labs 1968 ESB yeast. Original gravity as put into the fermenter was 1.040.

Here's the label for the Bitter...

Here I am on a nice day (November 1, 2008) enjoying my latest...an English Northern Brown Ale out on the deck. Temperature is in the upper 50s, so this is a bit unusal for Wisconsin, but I'm taking advantage of it! This one is VERY tasty! I am definitely considering another batch so that I have some on hand to enter in a competition or two! Northern Brown Ale Recipe

Here's a short video of the English Pale Ale I brewed on January 3, 2009. As I always do, it is an all-grain brew. The grain, hops and yeast were mail ordered from Northern Brewer in Saint Paul, MN. The yeast was a Wyeast Labs London ESB 1968 strain that comes as a liquid in a "smack pack". Unfortunately, up North here, it can be a bit dicey shipping liquids in the winter months! This one arrived slushy, so I suspect it may have frozen solid at some point along the way, but there's no way to be sure. So, I thawed it in the refrigerator and a few days before my brew session, I smacked the pack and it swelled up normally. I had decided to make a starter with it, just in case, to get the cell count up to pitching levels for the Pale Ale. You may need to adjust the brightness control on your video player as the fermenter is kept in an area that is out of direct sunlight and the video is a bit dark.

Pale Ale Video Clip