First Take 323 was a kit beer I made when I got my Anvil Foundry 10.5 Electric Brew Kettle. First Take was chosen as the name since it was the first beer I was making in a long time. There isn't much to say about this beer. It was a good way to get back to homebrewing which I had been away from for about a decade. It made a decent Weissbier mit Hefe but since a large portion of the bill was LME the flavor was dull.

5720 Anniversary Cream Ale got its start years ago as 5700 Cream Ale at the turn of the millenium. My fiance at the time - still my wife - read about a tradition in some culture where the bride and groom give gifts made from grain to their parents. Since out wedding was on 5/7/00 I named the beer 5700. 5720 was made for our twentieth wedding anniversary.

Zweiter Lauf 323 is my adaptation of First Take 323 from a kit beer to my own recipe. It was still a partial mash but the grain bill changed significantly from mostly LME with some wheat flakes and a handful of wheat and barley malt to mostly malt with DME.

Black Lodge Berry Wheat got its name from the other dimensional place in Twin Peaks. Although those who know will recognize the label is based on the waiting room and not the Black Lodge. It is my first attempt at a fruit beer since I tried making a framboise 20+ years ago that went horribly ary. Leinenkugel Berry Weisse was a regular goto beverage for my wife when we lived near Chicago. It is not available where we now live so I decided to try and make a acceptable replacement that both she and I would like.

Chocolate Bon Bon is a twist on the first big beer I made. It was a monster Russian Imperial Stout coming in at 13.4% ABV that I had made in my single days shortly after I moved to Illinois. The first time I made it the fermentation stalled and would not start because the alcohol level got to high. At the time I first made that RIS there were really only four types of yeast available: lager, ale, champagne, and wine. Janet had tried it when we were dating and described is as being like motor oil - she really didn't like it. I was making it again only now we were married. Janet suggested I add chocolate to it. It sounded like a good idea so I was going to go to the local homebrew shop (a liquor store with a selection of fermentation ingredients) and pick some up. She then asked me if it could have some fruit flavor in it like raspberries. I hemmed and hawed a little bit at the idea but when I got to the store I asked if they had raspberry flavoring. They did. I got back and put cocoa and raspberry in the carboy and thus was born Chocoalate Bon Bon - a delicious almost port like Russian Imperial Stout. As my high gravity brewing skills have gotten better the alcohol content has moved up from 13.4% to 15%.

Proto Gothinator is my first foray into making a true lager. I figured I should start with a dark strong lager since mistakes are easier to hide in a dark strong lager than they would be in a light lager. And I made some mistakes. I pitched about 1/4 of the yeast I should have. Through rousing, coaxing and warming the beer in the fermentor I was able to get this one to finish fermenting. Surprisingly, it seemed to turn out pretty good. The critical beer palate, the cicerones and BJCP judges would rip it apart for the presence of fruit flavors and aromas. An inevevitable result of pushing the fermentation to 68 degrees to finish half of the fermentation.

SCRAMline Dry Irish Stout is actually the second beer I ever made. This was my feeble attempt to make something that was like Guinness Stout. The origial recipe was malt extract and I steep roasted barley and black patent malt. It evolved to become an all grain recipe and as more ingredients became available and I learned I added flaked barley. It is carbonated to low CO2 levels and served on nitrogen.

Judtka Riesling is my first attempt at making wine from a kit. Not being one to be content with the instructions I tossed the EC1118 yeast that came with the kit and ignored the instructions to ferment at room temperature. I replaced the kit yeast with Wyeast 4783 Rudesheimer Yeast and fermented it a lager temperatures which is more traditional to the style. It ended up being an easy drinking off-dry white with great Rielsing character. It was a real confidence builder to keep making more wine.

First wine made from juice rather than a juice concentrate kit. Cabernet Sauvignon.

Walk the Planck is an Enigma wine kit I saw in when I was at Austin Homebrew Supply when I was picking up some beer ingredients. I read about the style and thought it would be something my wife would like. It was accurately described as being similar to an off-dry Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a kit I will probably stick with as it turned out that my wife really likes it.

Belgian Strong Dark Ale (aka Quadrupel). Another attempt at an extremely high gravity beer. 25% ABV.

Name for the ancient birthstone of when I was born. My sister said she like Irish Red Ales so I thought I would come up with one for our family reunion.

Black Lodge Berry Wit.

Lava Lizard Lager.

Rapolas Keptinis Alus.

Walk the Planck.

Antimony Sauvignon Blanc.

Cauldron Blackberry Cider.

Lawnmower Lite, Lite Cream Ale.