Old Man Kaufman

[OldManKaufman]

Hey fellow beer geeks! I’m Tim Kaufman and I am an over-consuming, under-achieving homebrewer. I started out drinking Bavarian beers at the tender age of 19 while in Augsburg, Germany in the early 80’s. Getting sloppy on dopplebock and riding the streetcar back to base – wahoo! I also discovered those ever divisive HefeWeizens and couldn’t get enough.That’s likely the start of the over-consuming part as they came in 1 liter mugs in lots of fest tents. After too few years of living it up in Germany, I parted company with the US Army and came back to Central PA. I took a job at a local printer and have been there ever since. That’s not really the under-achieving part, but some might be lead to believe that. The under-achieving part is that I’ve been brewing since 2007 and have yet to enter a competition!

My brewing started off as a way to get a fresh Hefe in the states. An extract kit and full boil set up got the first batch in the fermenter. It wasn’t much of a Hefe as it turns out but before that one was even ready, there were two more batches of other styles bubbling away. I’ve done a little bit of many styles and mainly stick to the style guidelines but I continually come back to wheat beers. I really like hefe’s and witte’s and make them a lot but seldom use the same recipe from batch to batch. I’ve also done more than my share of ‘kitchen sink’ brews trying to use up odds and ends of ingredients, usually with so-so results – hence my preference for following the style guidelines. Brad, that doesn’t make me a ‘style whore’, just a poor recipe formulator.

So, I now brew on a 5 gallon electric system in the basement. Building it with ideas borrowed from lots of folks on the web proved to be pretty rewarding, if not an inexpensive deal. I’m hoping to get motivation from the club, perhaps to even enter a comp or two, make some different beers out of my comfort zone and spread the electric gospel to whoever is willing to listen.

Prost!

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