Thursday, May 31, 2007

help me figure out my pantry

I seem to be in the calm before the storm work-wise, so I'm using it today to organize an order of brew supplies. If there are any homebrewers who happen to be perusing this blog, I could really use your input. So far I've brewed 6 batches, all from kits. Now that I understand the basic process and have started to develop my beer palate a little bit, I'd like to move into recipes and eventually into improvisation. I cook by ear, as it were, consulting printed recipes as a starting point more than anything else; as soon as I am confident that I can more or less anticipate and describe the Z produced by a given X + Y, I'd like to play around with beer recipes and style variations of my own.

Anyhow, all of this means that I'm interested not just in ordering ingredients for a specific recipes or two, but in laying in a supply of staple yeasts, malts, hops, etc. that could form the start of a versatile brewing pantry. Now that this site is starting to get more traffic, I'm hoping you, dear casual Reader (or someone in your circle), might have some ideas about what my pantry should contain. Efficiency is going to be key here since the husband and I are both packrats and together with our livestock are wedged into a scant 900 sq. feet. We do have an awesome kitchen, though, and a two-tap kegerator that holds 5 gallon kegs, of which we currently have one spare. In the short term I am interested in brewing the creamiest, chocolatiest Porter recipe I can track down, and after that, a nice summery wheat beer or saison. Please send me your ideas!

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