Welcome to Brew or Die!

Welcome to Brew or Die! This is a new blog about the home brewing adventures of one Chicago resident. This will be my first post in a hopefully long lived blog. I'm here to share my experiences in making that delicious brew that some can't live without.  I am, by no means, a professional.  I will never claim to be.  I just want to show how easy brewing your own delicious beer actually is.  It might seem that there is a lot of time or even money to put towards this, but we will learn otherwise.

To start, you need some equipment.  You can find what you need at any brew shop, local or online.  Mine just happened to come from Midwest Supplies.  I have the basic beginners set so the only thing I needed to add was a brew kettle and bottles.   The recipes I've used or read require to steep grains in at least 2 gallons of water. I picked up a 5 gallon stock pot relatively cheap.  It doesn't have to be 5-gallons, but from what I have read, the more you can boil at one time, the better. For bottles, I just started collecting bottles from beer I've drank at home.  If you do this, you can only keep pry off bottles.

The first brew I made was an Irish Red Ale from a kit that can be found here.  I unfortunately don't have a whole lot to post about this besides that it turned out amazing.  Great color, flavor, and carbonation.  After tasting the final product, I decided to make this a frequent adventure.  The way I figure it, not only would it be fun to experiment, but also a good way to enjoy quality brew for the fraction of the cost.  I was able to get about 50 bottles out of the 5 gallons the kit produced and the kit was only $25.  What if I bought that much beer from a liquor store?  It'd be at least $75.

My intentions are to share everything I can when it comes to cost, ingredients and any other details to help in brewing the best beer possible. I would like to reach out and show others that this would be a worthwhile endeavor.

Sláinte!