I live in the Sonoma Valley, where grapes reign supreme. People up here tend to not take beer very seriously, though there are some notable exceptions. Most of the serious beer folks left for Humboldt and Mendocino, what are you gonna do?
I've been into homebrewing as a hobby for a while (though you wouldn't know it by the paltry number of brews I've done), picked up the habit after my dad passed away in '99, quickly figured out that extract brewing was boring (at least to me). I didn't have the wherewithal to come up with an AG rig that was affordable (I'd always dream of brew sculptures). Then we started breeding, small kids around, etc. So, the hobby I love went dormant for a few years. I wept when I didn't renew BYO in 2006.
Fast forward to last year. A buddy of mine gets an AG rig (Rubbermaid-style) from his brother-in-law, and asks me if I wanted to brew. Well, that was like asking a cocaine addict, "hey, how about a line for old times' sake?" It was a brown ale, and reminded me of good times for sure. Plus, now I have a fellow conspirator who is just at the opening stages of learning to brew and I get to relive all the best dumbshit moments of my homebrew career through his eyes.
Now I've dusted off my gear, just took delivery of a Monster Mill MM3 (because the mill at the local homebrew shop is pathetic) and am looking forward to the laundry list of beer styles that lay before me (oh, and my buddy too). DIY stirplate, drilling the POS stainless brew pot for a weldless ball valve, brew pump and a whirlpool chiller are on the project list, based largely on what I've been listening to on TBN.
Brew Strong is perhaps the single best technical resource to homebrewers known to mankind.
Jamil's beer style series (and now CYBI) is amazing and is at least as valuable as Brew Strong.
The Sunday Session. Well, something has to come in third, I guess.
Glad to be here, hope to find answers to all the burning questions in my mind.
--R
