beer is good.
war is bad.

I nominate rigmir for the "post of the year" award. (Since there is a lot of misunderstanding going around these days, I feel it necessary to explain that I'm completely serious about what I just said. I laughed aloud when I read the post, and marveled at its simplicity, its lucidity, and it's profundity. I liked it.)

Wish I'd said that!

Not many breweries in the Middle East.

Tom, wanna trade that malt mill or a mash tun for my humidor?

Yeah...finished brewing up a brown ale last night, transfered it to the carboy, drank some sccotch and a few homebrews, came on here, and saw the politics thread progressing along and the beer thread off the page. Figured it needed a bump. So, IPA in hand, that was what I came up with... *shrug* Glad it gave you a chuckle

Hey ringmir, one way to get some malty authenticity to your extract beers is to use a few pounds of whatever (specialty malts or even a few pounds of 2 row) in a small icechest as sort of a mini-mash. I used to use an old Coleman jug with a spigot on the bottom, barely sparge at all, let the wort collect and settle in a bucket or pan, and then siphon it off into your brewkettle - leaving the debris behind. Not the best way to do it, but if you don't disturb the grain bed too much and don't sparge too much, you may like the results. And you'll get a feel for the extra work grain brewing entails.
Are you using any sort of temperature controlled brewing area? Or is it cool enough where you live to just let the carboys set on the ground?

I do some mini-mash with most of my brews actually. Generally not more than 2 lbs of grain though. I think it does help a decent amount. Eventually I'll move to all grain, but I'm moving around too much still to accumulate that much equipment. As for the weather, I'm in Boston right now, so if I leave the carboy in the basement the temp holds right around 70. A month ago I had to run a "swamp cooler" set up on it or else the temps would have been around 76. In the winter I'll have to see, I'm hoping it will be cool enough at the rear of the basement (away from the furnace and all) to be within lager temps. If not I'll move it up to my room and make sure the thermostat stays in the ale range. At my old place I just left the carboy in my room in the winter and it stayed in the ale temperature region.

Bump.

Hey beer experts. Any suggestions for good Marzens or Double Bocks to celebrate the coming fall and Oktoberfest??

For traditional German styles, the classics endure - Hofbrauhaus and Paulaner. I know, not inspired. Of course, if you can find a local brewer with the guts to make those styles, toss a nickel in his cup. Problem is, I don't think you can get the depth of flavor in those big lagers without doing a decoction mash and enduring a good, long fermentation - both aspects being technically and economically beyond the reach of most small, craft breweries.

They had HB Oktoberfest at Costco. What a country. Life is good.

I just knew that the beer thread would not leave us.