Okay for my 3rd batch of homebrew, I decided to be a bit more involved in the process. I purchased Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Home Brewing 3rd Edition (amazon.com), and while reading stumbled upon this recipe. Here is my particular implementation, with the addition of 1# of clover honey. Also, Papazian's recipes all call for 'whole hops' whereas I have been using pelletized hops exclusively. He doesn't note any difference in potency that I have read, so no adjustment in weights was made.

5.5# pale DME1# crystal malt0.5# toasted malted barley (pale)2 tsp. gypsum (I was told this makes the water hard)2oz. Northern Brewer hops (60 min.)0.75oz. Cascade hops (1 min.) 1# clover honey Danstar "Nottingham" yeast

The aroma of the wort was incredible, and I have high hopes for this one. In case you are even newer than I - as pointed out in Papazian's book - you don't actually buy toasted malt, you buy plain old malted barley and toast in the oven at 350F for 10min.

I don't have a malt mill, so I crushed my toasted malt with a rolling pin. It was hard to get the 'just cracked' appearance that the crystal had, which the LHBS was kind enough to grind for me. The toasted may have ended up a bit "over-ground".

Why the honey? Yes, you could argue with some success that I'm not nearly experienced enough of a brewer to go mucking about with proven and tested recipes, however: I have those two low-alcohol batches under my belt, and I've had enough of it. If this one comes out a little high (by the way the OG I think shows that I will be fine) I will live with it, but an IPA should be a robust high-alcohol brew, that is the style. If it comes out too strong I'll just overhop the recipe next time and tada! I'm brewing actual to-style "Imperial Pale Ale" Right??

OG: 1.063FG: 1.012ABV: ~6.7%

Okay, so that's "how it all began". This is "how it all continued".

Again, I used a similar recipe "formulation" process as the first batch. I walked into LHBS (the local home brew supply store, generic term) and triumphantly stated "I am going to make a bucket of beer" (Okay, maybe there were no horns playing, and maybe I wasn't standing with fists on hips); I proceeded to allow the proprietor to stack up a pile of stuff, and instruct me as to what to add when. Honestly, I actually chose Cooper's Wheat extract syrup (my only input) to which he added 2# DME, Danstar yeast (Edit: After viewing Danstar site I recall that their "Windsor" yeast was used) Hop pellets, again not remembering the 'strains' and remembering why I'm using a journal for this sh!t all of a sudden.

Anyway, this brew turned out much more similar to the last than it should have. I'm sorry, but IPA vs. Wheat Ale should knock you over with the differences I think. I mean, these are two entirely different styles of ale. Again, a low-alcohol concoction - maybe moreso than last time. You can drink this beer all day long. That's not altogether bad, but it's just too weak for my taste. Flavor is good - and getting better. (maybe I'm drinking the whole batch before the true character has time to develop?)

OG: 1.040FG: 1.018ABV: =~ 2.87%

Okay, so maybe 'Slashdot' isn't altogether the most appropriate place to be logging the saga of my homebrew efforts. Maybe it is.

I'll be drinking entirely too much homebrew (and making it) to devote any of my time to running a "real blog", but who cares? And so the saga begins ... (began actually)

Having been thorougly fed up with my inability to cobble something together that resembled a homebrew starter kit, I just said fsck it and bought a damned starter kit. Yes, $70 does seem a bit pricey for a box of plastic gadgetry, but getting it all at once and feeling some comfort level with not having forgotten anything is worth something, as is my time.

I purchased this kit at "A Brew Haus" in Jacksonville, FL. Luckily the propreitor is seems a fairly standup guy - since he's the only source in town. I allowed Dave to put together an ingredient kit - and didn't ask too many questions. I was just looking at keeping it very simple this go-around.

The "recipe" was a 3.3# can of 'Imperial Pale Ale' extract, 2# DME, and that's it. One or both of the extracts was(were) pre-hopped, and the syrup came with yeast.

The resulting brew was a low-alcohol, low hop character, copper ale that was not nearly what I expected/desired; which would have been something along the lines of Red Hook IPA.

This was about a month ago, and it's all gone now. It was very drinkable, and good - just not to style at all. I still consider it a marginal success; after all this was my first run.