CONGRATULATIONS TO HatchetJack, BREWER OF THE MONTH FOR JANUARY 2012.

May all your brews beer great this year!

And the questions everyone wants to ask of the first Brewer of the Month in 2012:

1) When did you start brewing and what made you interested?
2) What is your favorite beer?
3) Who would you most like to share a beer with?
4) What is your favorite recipe(s)?

Congratulations, HJ!

Congrats on a well-deserved win that was a long time coming!

Congrats! Well deserved.

congrats HJ!
feliz ano nuevo!

congats HJ!! this has needed to be yours for a while, glad you won.

Congrats, HJ. Thanks for humoring the new chick in the shout box and all the helpful stuff you post in the forum proper.

Oh Wow!! thanks girls, I am humbled. My wildcat/ unorthodox brewing
is really not worthy of that title and I was perfectly content to
even be nominated as many times as I have. This is a surprise
two years to the day I brewed my first batch.

1) When did you start brewing and what made you interested?

Santa brought me an early Christmas present December '09
One of my brothers's fratenerity brothers started homebrewing
sometime in the late 80's and I was lucky enough to be in the
right place at the right time to be able to sample a few of his
brews. The grapefruit, banana and bubblegum flavors were like
nothing I had ever experienced before. There was no craft brew
anywhere around here back then. I always thought it was neat that
he could brew that magic like beer at home and I was envious.

Fast forward to thanksgiving 09, a friend brought a few beers
over he brewed with the MB setup. I think it was American Devil
and Nut Brown Ale. I was impressed enough that 2 weeks later
I had about 150 bucks worth of Mr Beer kits sitting on my porch.



2) What is your favorite beer?

That's a tough question but if I had to pick one style to brew
from now on it would have to be some form of pilsner.
I also really dig the some of the Belgians and have become
interested in brewing a lambic/ sour beer after trying one back
in October.

3) Who would you most like to share a beer with?

Both of my Grandfathers, I lost one when I was 8 years old and
the other when I was 22. They both lived out of town but what little
I learned from them rubbed me in a positive way. I miss them
both.

4) What is your favorite recipe(s)?

That's tough too, I feel like my favorite is yet to come.

I would have to say my Pilsner/ Saaz Smash and Firecracker Red Ale.

Here is my simple Pilsner/ Saaz smash I brewed last year.

5 gallons

8 lbs Briess Pilsner

.25 oz Saaz @45
.25 oz Saaz @20
.50 oz Saaz @5

US 05 dry ale yeast

IBU 12
SRM 3
ABV 4.3

I will post the Firecracker Red Ale tommorow. I have 10 gallons
of that fermenting now with adjustments made to the original
recipe and thanks again.

I was brewing today so sorry for the late congratulations. I have been wanting to do some SMaSH brews, so I may have to brew some of your Pils/Saaz. Congrats again.

Congratulation,Cheers!