As one of my friends tells people “you have to know a guy, who knows a guy…” 
It’s a mixture of people from work and friends we’ve made over the years (many, many years) through our kids classes and the whole neighborhood of course. You can’t have that big of a party and not invite the neighbors.
Let me know if you’re ever going to be in Des Moines at the end of September, I’ll PM you the details.
Paul
Welcome to the AHA Forum and the obsession carpenter. I too am obsessed with this awesome hobby and have been for about 20 years and some unknown number of batches. I am always on the search for knowledge and information in an effort to better myself and ultimately to make better beer. It’s a process that has unfolded and continues to on a daily basis.
Making better beer one batch at a time. 
Pretty much what /\ Tomsawyer posted.
Thats how we (wife/me) look at brewing, in racing I called it track time nothing beats actually doing it, hands on & getting dirty.
I think its going on 5yrs? 54 batchs +/- last year alone, a handfull of beer trips to Belgium for research and we’ve meet a few homebrewers in NL & Be.
This year will be our 6th annual Oktoberfest. Last year we went through 5 full cornies and 4 partials, 60 pounds of homemade sausage, pretzels and lots of other food. Several area homebrewers bring their own beer and food, it’s a great time.
To the OP my best advice is to marry a person who enjoys the addiction as much as you do, whether or not they ever brew with you. My wife doesn’t brew with me but loves the homebrew parties and the homebrewers I’ve met online and visited during our travels. I have not met an ass*ole homebrewer yet. She loves setting up beer oriented vacations because she knows it won’t be just drinking all day, but places that make great beer tend to be places worth visiting for other things. She bought me my first equipment kit back in 1992 and has gone above and beyond in supporting me with my homebrewing.
I heard my name…?
Welcome you are one of us now…whoaahahhahahahahha…
Me, I started in October…straight to kegging, and now 10 gallon all grain after 5 batches of extract. Haven’t had a bad batch yet…(oh no, I have tempted the beer gods…). Friday will be WSBW # 0009-AG. It’s all good dude.
wow. thanks for all the advice and support. i’m sure i’ll have a lot of questions for all of you. right now i am just hoping my first brew is at least potable. i’ll let you know how it turns out.
…actually here is my first question. my first brew was a brewers best english brown ale extract kit. my og was 42 and the recipe said it should be between 45 and 49. my fg was 7 and the recipe said it should be 11 to 15. during the brew everything was right on temp wise and time wise. it fermented out pretty fast and i bottled it 12 days after brewing it. i did taste it after gravity tests and it seemed ok but what am i going to have when i crack it open?
this is going to be a long two weeks. anyway thanks again and any advice is greatly appreciated.
Did you calibrate your hydrometer? Water at 60º should read 0. Those little paper cards in there tend to shift. Mine reads .002 high.
Yep, should read 1.000 in 60 degrees F distilled water. Both of mine read .003 high.
Also, to see if your gravity is really where it should be you need to accurately measure your volume. Your lower than expected numbers could be because your volume is actually more than the designed recipe volume.
You’ll have beer my good man! Beer!
Oh, and if you don’t brew again now, you’ll have a lapse in homebrew! Good god. man! NO beer! :D
If the hydrometer consistently reads 7 point low, that explains everything and you nailed your OG and FG. I’d bet it’s at least a part of the problem.
and on that subject, watch out for your thermometer too, as a vital piece of gear that is not always accurate. there are good threads out there on purchasing an accurate one. This will become more important to you as pitching temp and mashing temp take their inevitable hold on your fascination…
I did all grain for two years before I realized my thermometer read 8 degrees too high. man, did i have some dry beers back then…
i will definately calibrate. i feel a lot better about what i am going to get at the end. now i just have to pick my next recipe. thanks again eveyone.