iain

My stuff is supposed to be arriving today. I'll have the pack smacked as soon as it arrives, but I hope it inflates enough to start on Saturday. Otherwise, it's Sunday for me.

You could always do it on Sunday. Honestly, I'm not sure how much I'll be posting on Saturday anyway - though I wil be brewing.

Like GGMora, my resolution involves cheesemaking. For the past few years I've been talking about leaving the big city and becoming an artisan cheesemaker. This year I want to get closer to realityand farther away from pipe-dream. To that end, I've set up a tentative full-time, month-long apprenticeship at Bobolink (on the NJ/NY border). My goal for the year is to fully understand what's involved in setting up such a business and to decide whether or not it's something I really want to do. I need to do a lot of research and, I assume, amass a lot of money. It's the money that really freaks me out. I've been keeping a blog (albeit one that is updated spottily) on this for a little while, in case anyone want to read along at home. It can be found at: http://www.cheesebiz.org.

Headcount: Confirmed for the 10th: cdh theakston iain wnissen Jim Rumored: Chef Fowke Selski HungryChris M3brewboy Can all who are on board please confirm that are? If I've missed anyone, please post here. I'm looking forward to trying as many of these as possible. Hopefully an NYC meeting will work out. edited again to update "confirmed" vs. "rumored" list

I've ordered ingredients and a few supplies from Northern Brewer, making the following substitutions: Carapils Malt 20°L -> Dingemans Caravienne 21°L Chocolate Malt 338°L -> Crisp Chocolate. 625-635° L Seeing that the chocolate malt is so much darker, I might use a little less than called for. It's going in at such a low amount that I assume it's more for color and flavor than body. Thoughts?

I'm just going to order from Northern Brewer, I think, mostly because I've used them a few times in the past and they seem well-equiped for mail order. It will be interesting to see the differences in the brews - especially if we get to pass some around. I'll probably be placing my order in a day or so. Let's do a headcount. Who's in?

Great...thanks for the link. I like Northern Brewer, but I'm willing to try elsewhere. When I do order supplies, I'll post back here so we can see what variations people are doing.

I've been looking on Northern Brewer's site to price ingredients and make sure they stock everything I'll need for this project. I'm having a little trouble with the Carapils Malt. The recipe calls for .5 lbs of Carapils at 20°L. Northen Brewer offers one Carapils at 1.5°L - a significant difference. About Carapils, they state: This leads me to think that Carapils isn't available at 20°L. Is this assumption correct? They offer a belgian "caramel pilsner" malt at 6°L, and Dingemans Caravienne at 21°L. Would this latter choice work for the recipe at hand? NB's grain selection is available on this page. Is everyone still in for Jan. 10th? I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks all! I hadn't checked in to this thread in a few days (sidetracked by work, of all things) and was happy to see such great responses. I'm heading to my favorite Indian grocery tomorrow, I think.

I'm in NYC - Brooklyn to be exact, though I'm not opposed to making a special trip into Manhattan.

coffee rice butter onions garlic fish sauce oil (usually olive) chicken thighs (for some reason, I always seem to have some on hand)

Naturally, and your question was certainly appropriate here. It's just that more specialists in Indian cuisine (including professional Indian restaurant chefs, etc.) frequent the India and Indian Cuisine board. Right...and I do appreciate the input. I'm easily confused.

Thanks for your input on the spices. I'm always a little confused by the cooking vs. regional boards. I think cooking's cooking, no matter where you are or what you're making. If I were on my way to New Delhi, though, I'd certainly check in on that board to find out where to eat. I'll post this there now, though. Thanks for the advice.

For Christmas, I'm planning on buying my father a decent selection of Indian spices. He loves to cook Indian, but his spices are stale, to say the least. What spices would be considered essentials? Also - are there any that are nice to have but not absolutely necessary?

This is a great idea...and provides even more incentive to take the time later to mail samples to as many people as possible. At some point closer to the date, I'll try to put together a list of everyone involved. I have to say I'm getting excited about this. I've brewed beer 5 or 6 times in the past, but expect to learn a lot more from this experience than in any of the previous attempts (with the exception of the first time out, perhaps). edited for grammer

Food magazines...usually food and wine or cook's illustrated.

The Nut Brown recipe sounds good to me too. Is this a recipe you've used in the past, cdh? I think we'll need some sort of eGullet specific name for the brew. Does Jan 10 (saturday) work for everyone as the brewing date?

I'm glad someone else suggested we wait until after the new year; I was going to pull out if it happened sooner. That said, I think that CDH is right on with the recipe suggestion and equipment list. We definitely shouldn't be brewing a pre-hopped kit. It's really doesn't take much more brain to boil up the separate ingredients rather than a single can of goop, and the end result is not only more tasty, but also more educational.

Chef Fowke, you kicked this whole thing off. Are you ok with waiting?

I like the idea of extract plus grain, but I'm not so sure I want to be adding "exotic" flavoring ingredients like maple for this first group outing. Perhaps we should keep it a little more simple. Personally, I could go for a brown ale with plenty of hoppy bite - similar to Brooklyn Brown. Anyone?

Actually...waiting would be better for me. I have to order stuff online and we haven't even picked a recipe yet. Right now, it looks like we have four of us in on this project - Chef Fowke, cdh, M3brewboy, and me. I don't think we need a ton of people to do this well, but the more the merrier. Of course, if we do end up with just a handful, sending bottles to all involved is much more feasible.

One or two bottles sent out would fit better within my time constraints, as well. I also think we might need a "brewmaster" to lead this project. Someone who has done this before and understands the ins and outs. I've brewed a handful of times in the past, but not for a few years - and I've never really looked into water chemistry issues, caramelization properties of different grains, etc. Anyone else think this is necessary? Anyone want to volunteer?

I wholeheartedly agree that a simple extract recipe using readily available ingredients, rather than a pre-hopped kit, is the way to do this. Another option are these pre-assembled kits from Northern Brewer. Brewers with an existing home-brew supplier should be able to get the ingredients there, and new brewers in out-of-the-way locales can buy the whole thing with no fuss. I've used these ingredient kits before; the instructions are extremely clear and easy to follow. How many people are in on this project? We need to decide on a recipe very soon, so those ordering ingredients get them on time.

Excellent. I suppose the first step is to choose a recipe and acquire the ingredients. I think we should probably start with a fairly simple extract-based ale. I'll look for a good recipe. Is anyone else in? Perhaps we should start a new thread for this project so other members can easily find us?

Soooo.... which one is the bright, happy, dreamy and mystical pop oriented beverage and which one draws its strength from the dark side? The Beatles are definitely tea; The Stones are coffee - black, no sugar.