I love Red Ales. That looks fantastic.

Great book... very good beginner's guide with a lot of advanced topics as well. Also bought Joy of Homebrewing, but didn't get nearly as much out of it and personally thought the guy's schtick was annoying.

Most of my internet research ends up at homebrewtalk.com... have found a lot of good suggestions and recipes from there.

Do you make and bottle some and put the others in the keg or some combo? I've poured from the keg and capped on top of the foam but that was only when I was taking the beer somewhere to drink that night.

I've always found the idea of bottling to be tedious. I'd love to be able to keep some of my brews past the keg running out but didn't want all the work of putting it all in bottles.

I brew. I have only done extract brews to this point, but when I have more space I'll take a stab at an all grain setup. I've done 3 different brews to date -- an Irish red ale, Honey ale, and a Belgian Tripel this past summer.

That looks like food coloring was added.

There's 5 gallons of blackberry wine in the basement awaiting filtering. Freezer half full of berries for the next batch. I'm a hack, though.

My wife has some blackberry and raspberry bushes in the back yard, how many does it typically take for a 5 gal batch and what yeast do you use?

Depends on the beer. Since I do 10gal batches usually I may bottle some and keg some. I have 5-5gal kegs and a 2.5gal keg so sometimes I keg 7.5gal and bottle 2.5gal. (you can buy carbonation tablets to put in the bottles rather than adding sugar to the beer prior to bottling.

Also when I bottle I almost always use bombers to cut down on the number of bottles I have to mess with.

My brother got me a beer gun for Christmas so I can fill battles of my keg and purge the oxygen and hit them with CO2, this is supposed to allow bottles filled of the keg to last 6 months or so.

I find this hard to believe, since hops generally preserves the beer.. hence the term India Pale Ale.

There are quite a few of us here actually. I know Bwana and JimNasium (although he doesn't come here anymore because he hates us) are brewers. I've done 4 extract batches myself, although I haven't done anything in about 3 years. I keep thinking I'd like to get busy again, but haven't yet.

I am currently waiting to get another kegerator, and then I will begin brewing again. Moved up to a third floor condo about 18 months ago, and I didnt want to drag my big chest freezer converted to a kegerator up here, so I need to buy a smaller refrigerator to convert... I am over bottling at this point, except as a small amount to share with others. Once you keg, it is hard to go back and the effort of cleaning bottles, filling them, capping them, and then cleaning up the mess. It greatly increases the effort of brewing for me.

I have decided to brew beers that I really like that are really hard to find without paying an arm and a leg. My next beers will be a Chipotle Lager and a Rauschbier, lagered again. I can probably brew them for just over the price of Coors Light, and clearly they are a far superior beer.

Last beers I brewed were both Czech Pilsners, just hopped one up with Noble hops for kicks. Those were the first lagers I brewed.

Hops are a preservative, but dry hops add flavor and aroma that will dissipate over time. That doesn't change their preservative abilities but the flavor and aroma definitely go away fairly quick.

IPA's should be drank fairly quick. Thats why Stone has all those beers call "Enjoy By - X _Date".

Open a year old Hopslam and tell what it tastes like. You will wish you enjoyed it much much sooner.

The only beers that fare well aging are big beers with lower IBU and non dryhopped beers like barleywines, stouts, quads etc...

Really interesting setup, by the way. Haven't seen that plastic conical fermenter before. It is reminiscent of many of the more professional setups I have looked at, such as:

http://morebeer-web-8-pavinthewaysof...x500/10041.jpg

Pilsners are tricker but really good when done well. I have had 10gal of an all Saaz hop Czech Pilsner lagering/carbonating for about 4 weeks now. I call it Saaz All. Plan to pour the first beer tonight.

An IPA is best drank within 30 days of bottling/canning. Aroma hops especially start to fall off after that, hence the Enjoy By trend of IPAs.

From Stone themselves:

http://enjoyby.stonebrewing.com/fresh-beer

Particularly with ultra-hoppy, West Coast-style beers, it’s a race against the clock regarding flavor and quality. The flavor- and aroma-producing oils and acids in hops deteriorate with exposure to time, air, light or warm temperatures, so the easiest way to ensure that your hoppy brews are bright and flavorful is to enjoy them as soon as possible after purchasing them.

Granted, most beer is best when fresh, but imperial stouts, barelywines, farmhouses can improve with aging. IPAs, not so much.