Greetings from The Beer Men @ The VBC,
As we approach our first anniversary we look back to see some important observations and, well, learning moments. Thought I would share some with you as well as what is on tap for the Anniversary brew.
First year lessons:
1) Always approve your brewing schedule with your wife
2) Do not go by the suggested usage amount on the back of the Cardamom package. Unless, of course, you love cardamom in ways no one else should know about.
3) People lie about how good your cardamom beer is because they think it will hurt your feelers if they tell you the truth
4) Brewing is a great time when a bunch of people show up
5) Brewing is expensive when a bunch of people show up and drink all your beer
6) It is cool to have bottles of your own beer
7) It is a pain in the ass to bottle your own beer
8) It is awesome to have a keg of your beer!
9) You always have to go to the bathroom right as the boil starts
10) You sit around and wonder why you did not start this in collage
So as we start the New Year out, (yes we have officially changed the calendar to VBC time, Monday will be the start of Year 2, so enjoy your new years eve!) we will be experimenting a bit with a brown. We have the gear to do a 10 gallon batch which we will be splitting into two 5 gallon batches. One will remain a brown, the other will get to be a spicy brown (kind of leaning towards naming it Mick’s Brown Sugar Ale because we like the Stones!). We will see how they turn out, and if it works, well I will post the recipe here so you all can mess with it to make your own, or clone Mick (the world needs more Micks!). This is as close to an original VBC recipe as we have made, so we could really screw it up!
Here is to a great first year!
Cheers!
The Beer Men
Thebeermen's Blog 
Congrats on year one! Brewing my beer is next on my list of things to do. 1. Build a Bar in my garage. (done). 2. Get a Mr. Beer kit (done—won’t do again). 3. Brew my own beer! (next up) Any suggestions on where to start? Thanks for checking out my blog by the way. Looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen in year two!
Sorry about the delay! I would suggest finding a brewing supply store in your area, and see if they have classes on brewing. If not, check around to see if someone is home brewing in your area and see if you can help out, or whatever. I would suggest that you bring beer! If you want a place to buy a kit, go to http://www.learntobrew.com . They will ship it to you, and they also have videos, books, instructions online, etc. It is the place we use to get our stuff. Enjoy and thanks for reading! Looking forward to seeing how things turn out for you!
Love the blog. Congrats on your year anniversary. Go pokes!