Why You Should NOT Brew Beer?
Are you interested in brewing beer at home but something is holding you back?
For many years I was intrigued by homebrewing but there were three things that deterred me from taking the plunge:
1. It looks too complicated.
While there might seem like an overwhelming amount of information at first, don't let that scare you. Think of brewing a beer like driving a car. At first you are just concerned with the basics; start, turn and stop. Once you get more comfortable you can pop the hood and learn how the engine actually works. After that you can modify and customize to get specific characteristics out of your engine.
One of my first trips to the local homebrew store I struck up a conversation with the shop owner and asked if brewing is as complicated as I think. Ill never forget his answer: "It depends...can you brew a cup of coffee? If you can do that you will have no problem brewing a beer."
It turns out he was 100% correct.
2. It will taste like old bathtub water...best case.
I was always under the impression that homebrewing would always produce an inferior beverage compared to what I could buy in the store, so what the point? It turns out I could not have been more wrong. While it is true that 20-30 years ago, homebrewing ingredients were not amazing and freshness could not be guaranteed. However, the average homebrewer today has easy access to the same, if not better ingredients than professional breweries. There are nearly endless varieties of hops, malt and yeast available at any homebrew shop, not to mention online.
3. It will be way too expensive.
Contrary to what I thought before I started homebrewing, you need very little equipment to brew beer. You can get into the hobby for very little money and expand gradually as you see fit. Essentially you need a large pot, a heat source such as a stove top, some sort of food safe container to ferment(food safe 5gal pail) and some empty bottles. Another misconception is that you need a very expensive setup to brew good beer, this is also not true. That is essentially all you need! I will go deeper into how I started out in an upcoming post.
I will never forget cracking the top on my first bottle of home brewed beer and hearing the "sssssst!" as the CO2 rushed out, indicating that I correctly bottle carbonated my beer. The pouring it into a glass and thinking "whoa this looks like a real beer" and taking the first taste and being surprised that I was able to make something that tasted like beer. While I would prefer to drink the type of beer I brew now over what I made my very first batch, there is something strangely rewarding about enjoying a beer you brewed yourself. And if you do some very basic planing and are the least bit organized, there is no reason that you cannot brew a delicious beverage your very first time!
Cheers for now!
For many years I was intrigued by homebrewing but there were three things that deterred me from taking the plunge:
1. It looks too complicated.
While there might seem like an overwhelming amount of information at first, don't let that scare you. Think of brewing a beer like driving a car. At first you are just concerned with the basics; start, turn and stop. Once you get more comfortable you can pop the hood and learn how the engine actually works. After that you can modify and customize to get specific characteristics out of your engine.
One of my first trips to the local homebrew store I struck up a conversation with the shop owner and asked if brewing is as complicated as I think. Ill never forget his answer: "It depends...can you brew a cup of coffee? If you can do that you will have no problem brewing a beer."
It turns out he was 100% correct.
2. It will taste like old bathtub water...best case.
I was always under the impression that homebrewing would always produce an inferior beverage compared to what I could buy in the store, so what the point? It turns out I could not have been more wrong. While it is true that 20-30 years ago, homebrewing ingredients were not amazing and freshness could not be guaranteed. However, the average homebrewer today has easy access to the same, if not better ingredients than professional breweries. There are nearly endless varieties of hops, malt and yeast available at any homebrew shop, not to mention online.
3. It will be way too expensive.
Contrary to what I thought before I started homebrewing, you need very little equipment to brew beer. You can get into the hobby for very little money and expand gradually as you see fit. Essentially you need a large pot, a heat source such as a stove top, some sort of food safe container to ferment(food safe 5gal pail) and some empty bottles. Another misconception is that you need a very expensive setup to brew good beer, this is also not true. That is essentially all you need! I will go deeper into how I started out in an upcoming post.
I will never forget cracking the top on my first bottle of home brewed beer and hearing the "sssssst!" as the CO2 rushed out, indicating that I correctly bottle carbonated my beer. The pouring it into a glass and thinking "whoa this looks like a real beer" and taking the first taste and being surprised that I was able to make something that tasted like beer. While I would prefer to drink the type of beer I brew now over what I made my very first batch, there is something strangely rewarding about enjoying a beer you brewed yourself. And if you do some very basic planing and are the least bit organized, there is no reason that you cannot brew a delicious beverage your very first time!
Cheers for now!
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