About Me - Homebrewer

Prior to the extremely recent addition of "Singer-songwriter" (implying nothing about quality--post coming soon!) to my About Me list, "Homebrewer" was the newest label. I have only been brewing my own beer since March of 2008. Prior to talking about what got me into homebrewing, and the whats and hows of homebrewing, I want to talk about my experiences with beer in general.

But before I even get into that, I want to mention a small change in blog policy for this post. When I started up this blog, I made a conscious decision to never use other people's names in any of the posts. That accounts for the overuse of "ex-wife" and "friend" throughout the posts so far. I realize that most people reading this blog know who my ex-wife is, and probably usually know which friend(s) I am referring to, but I wanted to maintain their anonymity because anyone could stumble across this publicly accessible blog. I obviously don't care about anonymity for myself, but I won't make that decision for others. So, having said all that, I am dropping that policy for this post, because I'm confident that none of the people named are going to care.

For most of my life, I hated the taste of beer and constantly wondered what the big deal was. My experience with beer was limited to the awful Coors Light, Molson Canadian, and Labatt Blue lagers. I didn't have any interest in drinking beer at all until my friend Simon and I took a business trip to Montreal in the fall of 2006, and he introduced me to styles of beer I didn't know existed. I know Simon is pretty proud of this conversion story, and I guess rightly so.

What was the beer that really made me reassess my opinion? Guinness. I know there are a large number of people out there that think Guinness is disgusting, but I was intrigued by the dark colour, the incredible head, and the roasted barley malt taste. (Now that I've experienced stout beers that put Guinness to shame in every way, I just refer to Guinness as my gateway stout. And when I drink Guinness now, I get very little of the roasted barley taste, because I feel it is overshadowed by the souring that is unique to Guinness.)

When you have no interest in drinking beer, it's surprisingly easy to get through high school and university without ever getting drunk. It probably also helps that everyone in high school and university hated me; possibly because I was that guy that was always just drinking water. I have one pretty fucked up story involving drinking mass quantities of water that could have actually killed me, but this is not the time nor place for that. I also have some pretty funny stories involving bars and restaurants and their often ridiculous water policies; but no, this is supposed to be a post about beer!

It will then come as no surprise that since my discovery of good beer in late 2006, I have been drunk an embarrassing number of times for an adult of 30-some years. It is worth noting that I did actually get drunk one time prior to this, on a business trip to Toronto in late 2000; free wine was the culprit there, so that's all I will say about it. Between 2000 and 2006, my alcohol consumption was limited to small quantities of wine coolers and fruit flavored wine beverages (Boones!), never drinking enough to be more than slightly buzzed. Wow, how times have changed!

With a newfound appreciation for the different styles of beer available, my beer education was just beginning. I started buying different beers from the liquor stores, including good stuff from craft breweries like Paddock Wood, and trying sample trays at brewpubs like Brewster's and Bushwakker. Although I found a lot to love in India pale ales and red ales and wheat beers, the stouts (and porters--arguably a sweeter stout) were always my favourite.

And that brings me--finally!--to homebrewing. When Simon first mentioned that he was brewing beer in his house, I was skeptical to say the least. I'm going to disregard Simon's first attempt to brew beer; fondly remembered as "dirt beer." This story starts with Simon, his friends Trevor and Andy, and a Brewhouse Cream Ale beer kit. Actually, no, this story starts with me sampling the end result of that beer kit and being very pleasantly surprised.

The first motivation to get into homebrewing is typically cost. A beer kit can cost between $30 and $50, and if you follow the instructions explicitly, you will end up with nearly 23L of beer, or typically 66 330mL bottles. That is some cheap beer! If the quality is comparable to commercial beers, why wouldn't you brew your own beer? There is obviously also a small initial cost with the beer making supplies. But for less than $100, you can easily purchase everything you will ever need to make your own beer from kits.

My first kit was a Festa Brew Double Oatmeal Stout. This was a higher end kit that didn't require any addition of water. The wort bag was the full 23L. Brewhouse kits are 15L of wort, requiring the addition of 8L of water. Brewer's Spring kits are 8L of concentrated wort, requiring the addition of 15L of water. Pro tip: the less water you add, the stronger the beer you will make, albeit less of it; also, more body and more taste are likely results.

The following are the basic steps to make beer from a kit:

1. Sanitize everything. This step is easily the worst. The more you do this, the more shortcuts you will take.
2. Dump the wort in the primary fermenter. For beginners, a plastic pail is a typical primary fermenter.
3. Add water to the primary fermenter to get the volume you require. Stir vigorously.
4. Use a hydrometer to measure your original gravity (OG).
5. Add the yeast to the primary fermenter.
6. Let sit for 3-5 days. After a day, you should notice a layer of foam forming on top of the wort (krausen).
7. Measure your specific gravity (SG). The gravity should have decreased significantly at this point.
8. Transfer the beer into a sanitized secondary fermenter for aging. The secondary fermenter is usually a glass or plastic carboy with a fermentation air-lock.
9. Let sit for 1-2 weeks. If curious, periodically measure the SG.
10. Measure your final gravity (FG). With your OG and your FG, you can calculate your alcohol content. Google it.
11. Transfer the beer into a sanitized plastic pail, mixing in a small amount of dextrose sugar (or dry malt extract) for bottle conditioning (ie. carbonation).
12. Transfer the beer into sanitized bottles. Cap the bottles.
13. Let sit for 1-2 weeks.
14. Enjoy!

If you don't skimp on sanitation, it is nearly impossible to screw up a beer kit. You will soon be drinking some delicious cheap beer that you will be proud to say you created.

I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't have some challenges with beer kits. Wort spillage--check. Oxidation--check. Shitty, completely ruined batch--check. When I made my first kit, I was constantly checking the specific gravity, to make sure it was fermenting. And then I worried about adding too much sugar for bottle conditioning--I didn't want exploding bottles in my basement. But as you do more and more kits, you stop worrying completely. Words of wisdom from Charlie Papazian: "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!"

My personal favourite beer kit is Brewhouse's Munich dark lager. I have made that kit three times with very consistent and pleasant results.

For some people, beer making stops there. Kit after kit, style after style; guaranteed consistency and quality. Boring!

The next step most people take, if kits just aren't quite cutting it anymore, is "kit plus." With Brewhouse kits, it is easy to replace the 8L of added water with a steeped concoction of whatever you'd like. I've tried adding oatmeal and chocolate malt and cocoa powder to stout and Munich dark lager kits with varying degrees of success. Trevor and Simon have had success adding more hops to IPA kits, adding coffee to a stout kit, and using Belgian wit beer yeasts in boring kits to completely change the taste, but had less success when they tried adding tea to a kit.

If you're still looking for more challenge and customization options, some people would suggest that you next try brewing from malt extracts. I'm going to tell you to not bother. Just skip to all-grain already!

As a brief aside, Simon and Trevor have not limited their homebrewing efforts to beer only. They have had reasonable success creating mead by fermenting honey. I have yet to make my own mead, but I do have some excess honey and have been thinking about it for a while.

In fall 2008, Simon, Trevor, and I joined Ale and Lager Enthusiasts of Saskatchewan. On the first Wednesday of every month, we go to "beer meeting" at Bushwakker, which generally means that two of us get wasted drunk on beer samples and Bushwakker pints, and the third has to drink only a moderate amount of beer samples and drive us home. Beer meeting is obviously a highlight of the month, even if it's your turn to be designated driver.

Thanks to ALES club meetings, I have discovered a love of fruit lambics, as well as almost all Belgian beers, and have been able to sample some excellent and some terrible beers, meads, and ciders. I also had a great time volunteering as a beer server for the club's beer competition in the spring. And I really enjoyed the terrific ALES club beer and food potluck.

Most senior members of ALES are all-grain brewers, as you would expect. And we were inspired by some of the beers they brought to the meetings for us to sample. Simon took the lead this past April, deciding one day that he was going to make a mash tun out of a cheap cooler. We have never looked back.

All grain brewing is easier than it sounds. On many Saturday afternoons, I get together with Simon and Trevor, and sometimes our friend and benefactor Paul, and we brew a 5-gallon all-grain batch of beer. These afternoons consist of a lot of sitting around, drinking, and waiting. Grinding the grains is probably the most annoying task, but once that is out of the way, you just dump the grains in the mash tun, add hot water, wait an hour, add more hot water, wait 10 minutes, add more hot water to sparge, boil the new wort you have created for an hour, add hops as desired, and then cool before tossing in the yeast. Like I said, a lot of waiting. Saturday afternoons are perfect for brewing beer.

And that's pretty much my story. Homebrewing is an excellent hobby for the beer enthusiast. I look forward to many years of perfecting our technique, trying new styles, winning some competitions, and simply having a great time sharing good brews with good friends.