Adventures in Home Brewing

My hobbies and interests include travael, movies, good food and beer, not necessarily in that order. As a home brewer, I was immediately interested in a post from @detlev proposing a #beersaturday challenge. This weeks challenge, the seventh (my first) it for YOU to post about your beer and your personal story about the situation where you had this beer. https://steemit.com/life/@detlev/a-steemit-challenge-around-beer-and-fun-beersaturday-number-7-calls-all-steemians-to-create-cool-content

Homebrewing as a hobby can be an enjoyable past time. I have only been brewing for three years, but I like to freelance. I come with an idea for a beer, based on a specific style, and then I go for it. I generally use a base recipe for the style and then make up my own recipe from there. My most recent project, a Mango Passionfruit Wit started with a basic wit recipe. I then cooked down five mangoes and four passionfruit which I cooked down with some passionfruit concentrate. This concoction was added to the secondary fermentation. I did not use a recipe, I just made it up as I went along. This works a lot of times, but I have had some turn out much better than others.

There was that chocolate peppermint I made for Christmas one year. To me, it was horrible. But there were people who loved it. The mint was just starlight mints that I chopped and then finished melting in a little vodka. I really did not like it. I was sharing some beer with friends last year and one of them asked if I used the Untapped App. I told him I didn't, so he said he would add the beer he was drinking to the app. Lo and behold, I was in there! And one of the beers that had been rated was the chocolate peppermint (Naughty Santa)! It received a higher rating than I would have given it. If you use that App (I don't) you can find my beer by searching "cold steel homecraft brewing." (Hence my moniker here...coldsteem...just a play on that theme. It is located at www.untappd.com/w/coldsteel-homecraft-brewing/196355

The funny thing about the untappd app is that I don't even recognize some of the people who have rated my beer! And some have given my beer good ratings. I don't sell my beer. It is strictly for my family and friends...so how it ended up in the hands of people I don't know is beyond me. But hey, I'm good with it. They could give my beer zero stars...they didn't pay for it...so they should be glad. Then again, that may be how I received high ratings. Either way, it is a nice ego boost to see the beer getting good marks. Personally, I like the ones I like and don't care so much for others. The honeybeyatch, which is a honey brown ale, is the only one I have made twice. It is my favorite. It has a nice malty nose, creamy mouth feel and toasty caramel notes. My latest brew, the mango passionfruit is delicious served ice cold in a chilled glass. Refreshing on a hot day. But I probably won't make it again.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my adventures in home brewing. Maybe I will walk you through the beer making process in a future post...probably on a #beersaturday. Cheers! And bottoms up...