Introduction

Is Home Brewing Worth It? Many of my college friends brew their own beer. Some of them started back in college, brewing in our apartment. We were all 21 at that point, so it was because they needed easier access to alcohol (even if they were under 21, there are much much easier ways to get alcohol on a college campus.)

It wasn’t until years later that I considered it, but of course, as should be the question before any commitment of time and resources, the question arose as to whether it was worth it.

Could I produce something that I enjoyed drinking. If it was enjoyable, was the time and money spent worth it. Was it sustainable? i.e. after a first sucessful batch, would I make subsequent ones? Would it turn into a regular activity? Could I get to the point where I basically exclusively drank my own beer? Do you have to drink more than average in order to sustain a home brew habit?

These are all questions I intend to answer. This will be Part 1 of a series of articles on my experience.

Why home brew

Of course the starting point for any home brewer is the enjoyment of beer. That is to say, the enjoyment of good craft beer- its aroma, its taste, its color. While most people don’t drink beer in spite of its alcoholic content, the true appreciators of craft brews definitely do not drink beer solely for its ABV either.

In short, why not both? Why not a cool beverage that can take the edge off a hard day, help you kick back and relax, breed good conversation, but is also a delight to the senses?

But, if we stopped there, we could just go to the grocery store and buy a six pack or to a brewery and order a couple pints. Don’t get me wrong, I think most home brewers do that, but there is something intangibly excellent about enjoying your own creation. While it’s hard to be proud of that $9.99 six pack you bought on your way home (probably $12.99 now), it’s extremely easy to be proud of being able to replicate that six pack on your own. Or at least – that’s my hope. I have yet to do that.

I think there’s also more to it than even this. I imagine there’s a creative element of experimenting with ingredients. Also, just gaining the knowledge in of itself is worth something. I doubt it’s done for the economics of it, although I intend to find out the potential.

Ultimately, however, it’s about working hard and then enjoying the fruits of your labor.

Short history of home brewing

There will be a future post on a digestible history of home brewing, but for now, I will give my general impression.

Obviously humans have been making beer for a very long time. At some point, pubs, bars, etc came along, and would serve it, probably out of barrels. Somewhere around this time, people could take beer home in containers, and that is where modern day growlers come from.

Then, when bottling, transportation, and refrigeration technology got good enough, large breweries sprang up and distributed en masse. Sometime in the second half of the 20th century, home brewing started rising in popularity. This was accelerated by improved yeast strains and other ingredients. I imagine as these home brewers got good at their craft, they started opening craft breweries.

Add in the age of the internet with easy to access information, ingredients, and equipment, and well, the world’s your oyster.

The Basic process

The basic ingredients of beer are:

• Grain
• Yeast
• Hops
• Water.

The basic process is

1. Sugar is extracted from the grain
2. Hops are added for flavor
3. Yeast turns the sugar into alcohol

A little more detail

The first step of the process is to extract the sugars from the grain, which is done by boiling the grains in water. Next, hops are added at particular points in time. Which, how much, and when hops are added makes a big difference in the taste. At this point, we have what is called wort.

After the final round of hops are added, the wort is rapidly cooled down to freeze the flavor profile in places. Then the wort is added to a container, yeast is added, the mixture is aerated, and fermentation commences.

Once fermentation completes (a couple weeks), the beer is bottled, a small solution of sugar water and yeast is added to each bottle, and it is capped. The sugar water and yeast will create CO2, which will carbonate the beer. After another week or so, the beer is ready. Some types of beers, such as lagers, have other specific requirements.

Basic Equipment

The equipment set up is pretty simple. You need a large pot to boil the wort in. A stove or burner to heat the water. A large spoon to stir it. An ice bath to cool the wort. A fermenter (such as a 5 gallon bucket with a lid) and an air lock. The cool thing is that while the equipment can start simple, you can get as fancy as you want with it!