The Homebrew Journey Begins

It all started with a Christmas gift several years back. Jake received a home brewing kit and we were both super excited to have him try it. Stress on the him, as in, Jake himself trying this kit. I have too much on my list to add attempted home brewing to it. Coupled with a previous home brew attempt many, many moons ago that was borderline traumatizing. 

And that kit sat. We were in the midst of leaving SoCal and the thought turned to brewing in the Submarine. Cute concept and we thought it would work since our original goal was to park ourselves in a place for a few weeks at a time.

And that kit sat. Jake reasoned (very logically) that brewing beer is not conducive with driving on washboard gravel roads every third day. So we turned the plan into brewing once we were settled a bit longer.

And that kit sat. It sat in Minnesota, it sat in Fort Collins and it sat once we moved into our apartment in Denver. Until I finally pulled it out and gave Jake a deadline: brew this before the (now years old) ingredients go bad. 

So I brewed the beer. It wasn’t a wholly bad experience either. The torturous continuous stirring over boiling wort for an hour plus that I shudder to remember wasn’t required, at least according to the kit instructions. Instead I happily sipped some beer, listened to some random kpop (thanks Steen), and added ingredients at mostly the correct times and temps. 

My first fear was that the yeast was dead. The somewhat fragile organism that is the key to our beloved alcohol content sat through freezing and horrendously hot temps over the few years of its existence in our care. Within 24 hours of pitching it (professional term, thank you very much) the fermentation bubbles were very violently present to my delight. The little yeasties were alive!

My second fear is drinkability. With such old ingredients, my only hope is that the beer once ready for consumption, will be drinkable. I hold absolutely no hope that it will taste good, I very much believe it will taste like old, shitty beer. I just want to make sure it won’t make us sick. So we will have to wait and see on that one.

I had two goals for this whole escapade. One, use the ingredients instead of wasting them (I abhor food waste). Two, try the experience again to see how horrendous it was. If the experience wasn’t too bad and the beer was at least drinkable without GI side effects I would be willing to try again with fresh ingredients.

So with a relatively easy, chill experience I decided to try my hand at another go. I learned very quickly that there are numerous recipes and brewing processes online. Each recipe looks as if it is in a foreign language. It was almost, almost as harrowing as choosing insulation for the Submarine, almost. But I found a reputable sight with a guide to exploring the different brewing processes by progressing in a logical manner with easy, basic recipes. 

List in hand, I dragged Jake to a locally owned brewing supplier. Upon entering the store, Jake became quickly enthralled, jumping around like a kid in a candy store wanting to try all the things. I was very overwhelmed at the names, varieties, and drowning in my inexperience. While Jake ran around in pure delight, I gave the guy behind the cash register my list and told him I had no idea what I was doing. He gathered all the ingredients and told me to just have fun with it. Supplies in hand we headed to the attached brewery (the cashier/owner is head brewmaster) and sampled some of the best craft brews we’ve had in a very, very long time.

So here I am, about to bottle the very first batch of the very old ingredients and then proceed to brew what I am calling the true first batch of beer on this brewing basic course. I hold no expectations. I hope this will be an enjoyable and delicious journey, but time will tell. It may turn out that it is too tedious, I lack the talent, or some other reason that may turn me off this journey. But you fail every opportunity you don’t take, so might as well try this path less choiced.

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