I came across Steem through cryptocurrency trading and had to see what all the fuss is about. It's pretty cool how effort posts are incentivized, and I'm starting to see Steemit posts as top Google results, so I thought I'd join in! I really like the ease of making picture-heavy posts and the level of depth in many discussions I've seen.
I tend to go hard into a hobby and stick around for a while, so I'm hoping to translate some of that enthusiasm and drive into some posts here.
Here's some topics you're likely to see me involved in:
Beer and brewing
The first big one is beer and specifically homebrewing, which I've been into for about a decade. My philosophy in general is to approach it like a chef, you're basically just layering flavors. Equipment-wise, I'm all about efficiency and reducing clean up, so I tend to use strategies like no-chill as much as possible.
I'm very into wild, spontaneous, and brettanomyces-based beers, and have won a few awards in competitions for them, and have even brewed a few recipes at a local brewery. It's to the point where I have my own aged hops for use in lambic-inspired beers. To me, the fun part is when fermentation starts - if I could buy pre-made wort to my specifications, I'd do that in a heartbeat. Making a barley-based strained simple syrup is kinda fun, but the creative aspects are the best part to me, especially when it gets to the point of blending.
Here's a fermenter filled with a biere de coupage with pink dragonfruit and kiwi - essentially, 80% saison and 20% aged sour blended with fruit added:
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I generally have something hoppy around at all times, be it a NE-inspired pale ale, a mega hoppy stout, or a zest-infused 'American witte'. You'll see a German pils or a dunkel here and there too, and the occasionally crazy idea like a coconut guava smoothie beer.
Some labels get a little crazy:
Whereas some are all class:
Whether it's brewing beer, growing ingredients, discussing beer, or criticizing beer, I'm in! I tend to have pretty strong opinions (let's get into haziness for the sake of haziness.... looking at you, Tradehouse), but beer is a subjective experience. Let's get into it!
Baby pic of my currently growing container hops:
Cryptocurrency
I've been holding some Bitcoin for a while, and after unsuccessfully attempting to trade on margin (my suggestion: don't), I stumbled into trading altcoins on various exchanges. It was fun learning how to read charts and to attempt to predict the future, and I'm doing pretty well.
This of course led into mining of Ethereum and other currencies, which has more or less taken over my apartment. I recently posted a summary of all my mining rig builds, and I hope to expand on that with some more specifics. I believe that blockchain technology is the future, and now's the time to get on board!
This isn't quite as picture worthy as the beer stuff, but here's a decent shot of a mining rig I built a bit ago:
Keyboards
As I said, I tend to go a little crazy on hobbies. I'm pretty deep into the mechanical keyboard community, which is silly to say but there's really something to typing on the perfect keyboard. If you know what I'm talking about when I say "58g ergo-clears", you certainly know what I mean.
Here's a couple custom boards, the one on the right is made from a full-sized broken Rosewill keyboard that I took a dremel to and turned into a 10keyless board after rewiring all the switches with a microcontroller, and the one on the left was customized for a special someone.
The amount of keycaps, switches, and random keyboard parts I have around is a little out of control, but now I'm excellent at soldering and type very comfortably! If there's interest, I may post a bit about my boards and what led me to make all the decisions I did.
I'll likely also be poking around posts that have to do with neuroscience, gaming, cooking, gardening, and whatever else tickles my fancy, so I hope to see you around.
I plan on bringing my all-in attitude to the discussion particularly when it comes to all of these hobbies that I'm passionate about, and with anything I get into in the future.
So cheers Steemit, I hope we get along well!
Will be looking forward to your future posts!
I'm not a home brewer, but I'm big into the craft beer scene. I live in Michigan where we are spoiled with the quality the breweries here. Bell's is my fave.
I'm a big fan of Great Lakes Edmund Fitz, and dice rolling with
HolyJolly Pumpkin. MI beer is great in my book.Edit: lol that typo
Great intro post.
I'm looking forward to seeing what other beers you made or got going. They're way about my current level but I'm gonna get there at some point.
This autumn/winter I'm going to get some hops rhizomes as well and grow some at home. I've got 1 plant now, but it's a decorative variety and it's not doing particularly well. What varieties are you growing?
Thanks man. Getting good at it is just experience, keep trying stuff even if you think it's beyond your skill level. One of my favorite things is tweaking, you really hone in on the spirit behind a recipe by doing different iterations of it. Sours are pretty easy when it comes down to it, the main thing is just keeping oxygen away while they age for all eternity. I'll def post some recipes here and there, maybe post a bit about what inputs affectssours over time (e.g. I'm convinced that hops matter a LOT more than people think), and certainly will get into some info about blending. I have a lot of notes and pics to work off of, the challenge is in finding the time and energy to translate it into a post.
I'm just growing the one Centennial plant that came from a buddy as a rhizome. It's only in its second year but it's become a monster already, considering that I'm training it around the structure I've made it's got 20-25 feet of growth already. I can't put it in the ground since I'm renting, but I'm impressed with its ability to grow in a pot.
I've heard that buying plants rather than rhizomes can give you a huge head start for only a few bucks more, you may want to consider that. If you're in a southern climate too, check out Neomexicanus hops, they're absolutely delicious. In NY here for me I have to stick to more traditional varieties though.
Thank you for the detailed reply.
My hops was a bought as a plant but it's just not doing anything, it's got a few leaves yes, and it grew up 1 foot, but nothing else. I will get some English varieties I think to start with, they're easy to find around here and should be acclimatised.
I'm just getting into sours and will probably try brewing a batch at some point. They do sound more complicated than regular beer when glancing over brewing forums, but I've heard many people saying they're actually simpler. Will see how it goes when I get there.
I'm excited now, my friend is going to let me use his equipment for my first ever all grain batch so that will be interesting!
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