Since my junior year of high school I’ve been interested in fermentation and brewing. It started out with a desire to make mead, which probably developed after watching the movie The 13th Warrior and by an interest in medieval history. Fortunately my dad encouraged it and my mom tolerated it, so I got a head start on a lot of my peers.
Anyone who has ever made mead knows that yeast and honey are a fickle thing. That first batch was fraught with issues including a stuck fermentation, bad recipe design, and ignorance. It would have been disheartening to my friends and I, if we had had any basis for comparison. Fortunately all alcohol tasted bad to us so we didn’t know just how much we’d missed the mark. Furthermore, my dad is a chemical engineer and so we were able to sidestep into the world of making beer. I had a willing financier and tester for my early batches.
Starting with a can of pre-hopped malt extract (the 2003 version of this Coopers English Bitter, for those wondering), my friends and I worked up to using extract and specialty grains and, eventually, one of us went on to be a manager at a brewery. My own brewing tale is mostly amateur, yet I do still love the romance and the process.
These days I see so much good beer being made around me that I have a hard time getting excited to brew for myself. But, like the $5 Little Caesar’s Hot-n-Ready, sometimes you just have to go for it. Then you’re good for another few months/ years.
On this page I hope to share fun experiences, recipes, and get links to neat tools that make the hobby what it is: a richer, more rewarding experience than simply going and buying a 6-pack at Safeway.