The first smack pack in over 2 years

It would be an outright lie for me to say this is the first smackpack I have activated in 2 years, but it is still quite significant.  During my brewing hiatus, I did help my friends with some batches, and even made one or two for myself on borrowed equipment.  It scratched the itch.  I know I made a few smackpack started during this time too.  However, today I smacked a new pack of  Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen yeast, for a Hefewizen that is coming soon.

I am of the "always make a starter" belief.  Even if its a small starter with 24 hours lead time.  I seem to make mine well ahead of brew day - as is the case this time.  I realistically won't make the Hefe till Wednesday next week because of life.  

I am going with the wheat beer for a few simple reasons, relatively short turnaround, on hand ingredients, the heat of summer, and the fact that my friends seem to like them more than the more bold craft styles.  However, I have a coffee stout, saison, and IPA in the planning stages too.  

My starter procedure is fairly basic and not super precise.  I take about 1250-1500 MLs of water, boil it, add about a cup or so of DME and return to boil for about 15 mins.  Like I said, not super precise.  Once it cools to about 70* F, I pour into a sterile container - either a flask or a growler.  Then I cap it with a loose fitted piece of aluminum foil after a soak in StarSan.  No longer use the stir plate, no longer aerate - just a quick make it and pitch it.  Reason for no O2 is simple, its a 15 minute boil.  We are not driving a bunch of O2 out of solution in 15 mins.  The stir plate thing is more of an item I could see myself using again, but stopped for some time and never got back into it.  I felt that my cell counts were fine without, but never looked too deep into it to say exactly if that was smart or not.

Recipe and brewing notes forthcoming for the Hefe.

And it begins...

Life has peculiar ways of reminding you of who you are and what you are meant to be.  At 33, I find myself living a fairly happy life in a rowhome in an old section of South Philadelphia.  Some call this area Passyunk Square, others Pennsport, and others Bella Vista - for simplicity sake everyone agrees it is South Philly.  My side street is half lined with cars, while the other half stays open to leave just enough room for cars to drive past.  Its not the type of street you would use to get from Point A to Point B, the typical person is trolling for a parking spot or picking up one of the neighbors.

The neighbors are a melting pot of lifelong residents, a crazy Cambodian sect that are running an illegal/undocumented outdoor restaurant, and your typical mixed bag of blue collar characters.  I have been here for about a month, and am by far "the new guy".  Its how I got here that is probably the most interesting...

Roll back 2 years - I was a 31 year old IT professional living the dream; married, 2 children, a beautiful ~3000 sq. ft. home on 1.5 acres in the rolling countryside of Chester County PA.  It was the area painters and landscape photographers would flock to, since it captures the un-stained American landscape.  I was a hard working man by day, and husband/father by night - filling my free time with as much homebrewing as humanly possible.  I had foregone all concerns of health in my drinking and eating habits, taking my typical 175# frame up to (and most likely above) 200 pounds.  I was fat and happy, barleywine this, red meat that, deep fried anything.  Let it all in...  MMMM.

As I said, life threw a curveball and I was looking fastball all the way.  My wife of 7 years and I decided to call it quits - and did so in perhaps the most amicable of ways since our love of the kids far outweighs any animosity we had towards each other.  So in a matter of months, it was all vapor; the house, the life, the unit, and further down the line was the beer.

After about two years of reconstructing a life, I find myself in a new home and all my homebrew gear out of a 10X20 storage unit in the rowhome in South Philly.  I have the onset of a lab being constructed in my basement, a kegorator in my kitchen, and a nice patio for brewing.  I still think I am weeks away fro my first mash-in in over 2 years on my gear, but I am starting to smell the wort again.

My basic principles in this iteration of my brewing life are simple.

1. Simple beers - nothing too extreme or experimental
2. When possible, be aware of calories - keep them light, but tasty
3. Source local - Philly has an abundance of markets and purveyors - I will take full advantage
4. Be the archivist I should be, I will be taking much better notes this time.  I will focus on repeatability and quality process - things I did prior, but with more diligence.
5. Stay positive in all aspects of life!