A wonderful part of brewing is the aroma produced during the boil. Hearty grains, thick malts, and floral hops all combine and impart a lingering headiness that lasts for hours.
After 1 or 2 weeks in the fermentor(s), the beer is bottled and a small bit is sampled. At this point, it's already usually delicious. While it is also warm and flat, if the beer already tastes good, then you know it's going to be amazing. Perhaps surprisingly, we've never had a bad/off/skunked batch yet.
Borrowing some equipment from Mark and Maria, we were able to brew up a 5 gallon batch of Hefeweizen. This was awesome because it gave use a default option to enjoy when we low on other beer. You tend to go through a batch of 9-10 bottles before you know it, but when you have a stash of something else, it really helps prolong the enjoyment.
Brewing has also given us an excellent reason to use a handmade, leather bound note book that we picked up in Italy. Taking notes to track progress, learn from mistakes, and experiment is part of the brewing fun.
The brewing habit picked up quickly again after we moved to Austin, TX. Though cooling down the wort (post-boil liquid that will ferment and become beer) is much more difficult when then tap water is tepid instead of cold.
With approval from our cats, we recently expanded our brewing capacity from 3 x 1 gallon batches to 6 x 1 gallon batches. One day, we might expand to 5 gallon batches, but the 1 gallon size is so easy that we haven't had the desire to yet.
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