When I heard my brother-in-law was getting ready to homebrew for the first time I couldn't stop offering to help. Seriously, he's probably wondering how to stop me from talking about it ;-) Well after a few conversations we landed on brewing at my house while his family is visiting. What better way to show somebody the ins and outs than to have them help you brew.
Homebrewing used to be a very private thing for me. I just wasn't very confident about my process and the results. Why would I share them with somebody if I wasn't a master? They might see I was doing it all wrong. Well, all I needed was somebody to ask me. Enter Jeremy a friend from work. As I've mention before in my online bloggings he was the reason I started brewing again. You know looking back on things he could be considered the catalyst for me to start homebrewing and blogging :-) Hmmm....anyway back to the story, he said that he was thinking of learning to brew. I of course shared with him that I knew how to do it and would be happy to help him learn. Before long we were buying supplies at the now defunct Brew By You and boiling up our first wort. We brewed a few beers together at my house with my equipment and then with his and soon he was off brewing on his own. In fact his wife is getting ready to brew her first batch soon. In fact I think they might be over to help us out too.
So, if you know how to brew, consider sharing your skill with somebody. You might not be perfect, but, who cares. You might even learn a thing or two. Some say, "The best way to learn something is to teach it." Sounds counter intuitive, doesn't it? Once you've taught something you'll understand. Get out there and teach somebody to brew!
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7 comments:
I have a couple of friends who nudged (didnt take much) me into homebrewing, and I am eternally grateful to them for it. I do feel a bit guilty however since I will be getting into all grain a lot faster than they did. I just hope that my beer quality will reach their levels as well.
Cool. I wish you all the best. Who knows maybe you can help them get to brewing all grain. I haven't switched over yet either. I'm probably sticking with extract for a while. Hey its worked pretty well for me so far. Maybe when the kids get bigger...{shrug}.
I had a blast teaching my buddy how to homebrew recently... He liked it so much, he brewed a solo batch later that week...
Ahhh...I remember reading that post. An IPA even! So, did you learn anything while teaching him?
I should clarify my comment. My friends have been doing all grain for about 2 years now. I have been extract brewing for a few months now and will be making the switch using their expertise. But they are hoping to use my knowledge about yeast (I'm a microbiologist) in possibly growing up my own stocks of brewing strains. Anyone know where I can get a sample of the superyeast that Sam Adams uses in Utopia (research purposes).
Bill, I get it now. That would be really cool. :-) Microbiologist eh? I've thought about propagating my own yeast. Haven't really thought about culturing my own strain though...yet.
I have successfully saved yeast for reuse, but, I'd like to do it more consistently. Right now my favorite way to brew is to rack my beer onto the yeast cake from the previous batch.
And no I don't know where to get some of that Utopia yeast. Maybe you could start with the White Labs High Gravity Ale yeast? Not sure how its done, but could you then select the yeast that lives the longest in a high alcohol environment? Could this done in successive generations with higher and higher alchol %. I'm a bit out of my element here just thinking out loud.
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