My First Setback

Well, it seems like ages ago that I ordered my homebrew kit.

Yesterday, I come home from work and low and behold, there is a nice big box at the front door. Problem is, there should be two nice big boxes. Not to be discouraged, I drag the (one) box inside and begin to examine its contents. It looks like everything that could be there, is. I assume that the second box will be my glass carboy.

Today I come home (btw, it is absolutely flooding) an there is (again) a box on my front porch. Excited, I go out in the rain and retrieve the box. Something doesn't feel (sound) right. As I open the box, I notice that there are multiple pieces in the box. Now, in a lot of cases, some assembly wouldn't be an issue. The problem is that this was supposed to be a "glass" carboy. Evidently, UPS didn't pay very close attention to any of the 6 Fragile stickers placed strategically on the outside of the box. What can Brown do for me? How about get me my glass carboy in one piece next time. It doesn't look as though this one will be useable. The bright spot - I call MoreBeer and they apologize and tell me they'll rush me one right away (thanks guys).

Oh well, my first (of many I assume) set back. Stay tuned.

Coming Soon ... Fairhope Brewery

I finally did it. After months of talking about it and a few weeks of research, I finally took the first step to building my beer kingdom. I finally pulled the trigger and purchased my first homebrew kit. I just ordered the Deluxe Starter Kit from MoreBeer.com. It's just a 5 gallon kit. I figured I'd start small until I got this beer thing down. But, I'm the type that tends to go all out on stuff like this. Case in point, I'm already looking at how I can upgrade my equipment and the kit hasn't even been shipped yet. In the next day or two, I'm headed out to get a 24 quart stainless steel pot that will act as my brewing kettle. The kit should be shipped in the next few days, which gives me time to round up some more bottles (I have quite a few as I've been hitting the Sammy Adams quite a bit lately), get all of my sanitization stuff together and settle on the ingredients for my first batch.

I'm now in the process of scouting sites to house the brewery. I've got my eye on a couple of spots, but one in particular would work out great if I can get the owner to (or at least let me) clean out all of the crap that's been piled up since the last Hurricane (Katrina, I think). This spot is within 5 minutes of my house and would work out great (photos to come).

Man, I can't wait to get started!

Coming Soon ... Fairhope Brewery. Stay Tuned.