Homebrew Dads (and Moms!)

Balancing the Homebrew Hobby with Family Life

Your wife has just told you that she is pregnant. Wonderful! Fantastic news! As it starts to sink in, you can’t help but to wonder if your homebrewing days are over. Or maybe you are like me - initially oblivious with regards to the time and energy commitment of having a child. “Oh, I’ll be able to homebrew all day long every Saturday with the bros like I always have! Why wouldn’t I?”

The smarter dads out there quickly recognize that there will need to be some sacrifices and compromises to the homebrew (or any) hobby once your family starts growing. In this blog post, I will discuss some of the key points to balancing your homebrew hobby and family life, along with reviewing some processes, strategies, and techniques for brewing with your newly limited time.

Spousal Support

I think we can all agree that being a father for your family is going to take priority over your homebrewing craft and hobby. That being said, in order to fulfill your fatherly and husbandly duties, you will want to incorporate your homebrew hobby into your family life with as little friction as possible. Communication with your spouse is going to be paramount to your hombrew dad success. If you are off homebrewing at a time your spouse expected you to be available to be with your children and family, you will be creating resentment toward your hobby, thus making it harder to continue brewing down the road. Discuss with your spouse your intentions for homebrew days - do you expect your spouse to watch the kids all day Saturday so you can brew, drink and relax uninterrupted for 8 to 10 hours? (...this plan may not go over so easily) Or do you plan to brew while the kids are asleep? Do you plan to try to brew once a month, or weekly? Regardless of your plans and intentions, you will need to be on the same page with your spouse in terms of how much time you are taking away from the family to brew, especially if your spouse has to cover for you or if you will be sacrificing other family activities. You may consider trading time slots - volunteer to watch the kids all day the following weekend so your spouse can enjoy one of her hobbies.

If you can involve your kids in such a way as to accomplish your brew day and take the kids off of your spouse’s hands for a while, that may be the ultimate bonus. Tyler U of @grindstonebrew reports his home run strategy : “My kids are usually up at 7 so I get out of bed with them, and let mom sleep in (she loves that). The kids help me mash in and then I make them waffles. Kids are happy, Dad is happy, Mom is happy.” (More on including your kids in the brew process later).

Tyler U of @grindstonebrew mashes in with his daughter before breakfast.

Planning and Strategies

There are a number of ways you can alter your brewing planning, process, strategy, and actual styles of beer to fit your family’s schedule.

Electric Brewing

One downside to propane brewing is that, for safety reasons, you must be present at all times while your flame is on. If you switch some or all of your brewhouse to electric power, you can have a little more flexibility to walk away while the boil is going, or more critically, set up a timer to start your sparge water before your allotted brew time. I use a simple electric kettle (Kegland Digiboil) which does not have a timer, but I am able to use an inline timer that we use for the Christmas lights, to turn on the kettle at e.g. 4am for my 6am brew. Other more advanced electric kettles and all-in-one systems (e.g. Grainfather, Robobrew) have built in timers.

BIAB or No-Sparge Brewing

If you have been used to traditional all grain brewing with a sparge step, you may consider scaling back to brew-in-a-bag (BIAB) or no sparge brewing to cut down the overall time requirement for your brew day. Both methods, while less efficient, eliminate the continuous sparge step which can take up to an hour. BIAB offers one less vessel to clean, but may require an extra hand or pulley for large grain bags. The no sparge method by contrast doesn’t require any changes in equipment - you will set up your mash as normal, add your remaining sparge water to the mash tun at the end of your mash, and lauter your full wort volume all at once. Interestingly, while these two methods are very similar, a Brulosophy experiment comparing the two found there can be slight but noticeable flavor differences.

Early Morning Brew Day

If your kids get up on the later side (or your spouse can cover the first couple hours they are awake), you may like the early morning brew day. Starting at around 5am, you might be able to complete your brew day before your kids are finished breakfast. Brewing in the morning also comes with less temptation to sip and sample beers during your brew day, which can keep you on task, limit mistakes, and help you to be done asap.

Overnight Mash

One way to break up your brew day is by employing an overnight mash. Coupled with your electric brewing equipment, you’ll now be ready to sparge at 5am or maybe sleep in a little longer. In theory, a longer mash will result in a thinner bodied beer, possibly higher OG and lower OG. However, these differences may be imperceptible, as exhibited by this Brulosophy experiment.

Extract Brewing

Most of us started on extract brewing so this is no shocker. Extract brews can really cut down the time required for your brew day - you can even consider boiling for as little as 15 minutes for certain (low bitterness) styles. My humble opinion is that certain beers are more easily accomplished with extract than others, particularly dark or simple beers. It goes without saying that extract brewing can be limiting for certain styles requiring certain grains or adjuncts (e.g. flaked oats). Even your base malt can be compromised depending on the extracts you are able to find (for example, if you are hoping to brew a single malt wheat beer, you will find that many wheat malt extracts are only about 65% wheat malt).

Sour Beers

I have to admit, I have never brewed a sour beer. But! Kettle sour brew process can split up your brew day similar to the overnight mash technique. On day one, you mash and sparge to create your wort. Next, you will drop the temperature into the specified range, and add your lactobacillus of choice. 24 to 48 hours later, you will resume your brew day as normal.

Late Night Brewing

The late night brew session is my bread and butter. And could be for you as well if you are at all night hawk. Very simply, brew your beer after your kids have gone to bed. Typically my brew day, start to finish, can take 5 or 6 hours. Putting my kids to bed by 8pm, I can be done at 2am. This can be doable especially if you can get a good night sleep the night before and/or if your kids go to bed earlier.

A buddy stops by to sample some brews and take in the smells of a late night brew session.

On the other hand, the all-nighters can start to take a toll or suck some of the fun out of brew night if you know you are going to be wrecked the next day (at one time I was doing two brews per night session to try to reduce my brewing frequency, but those turned out to be too brutal). To combat this, I’ve started to straddle my evening activities with brew activities. (Like many, since the coronavirus pandemic, I work from home, which makes this more feasible). Many nights I can be done brewing by 10 or 11pm :

(night before) - measure and crush grains, clean equipment, collect water
2:30pm - electric kettle timer starts heating water
4:30pm - take a brief ~10 minute break from work to start the mash
5:30pm - get off from work, begin the sparge. Put on some cartoons in the brewery for my toddler while wifey makes dinner.
6:30pm - break for family dinner and bedtimes. Set the electric kettle to hold wort at 190 degrees.
8:00 pm - kids in bed, resume heating wort…
8:15 pm - boil begins. Clean mash tun and misc equipment during the boil to save time later.
9:15 pm - end boil, begin wort chilling
9:45 pm - end chill - transfer to fermenter, pitch yeast, start cleaning
10:15pm - finished cleaning, have a victory beer, done for the night.

In this youtube vid I walk through my weeknight brew session, piggybacking on work and evening family activities.

PTO / Childcare Day

If you really enjoy relaxing, and having a couple responsibility-free brews during your brew day, you may try to arrange a (however rare) kid-free brew day. Occasionally I will take a vacation day from work on a day they are all in school or childcare. Alternatively, you can arrange to send the kids to the grandparents house for a day, if that is an option. Leading up to your brew day, try to knock out as many chores and errands as possible - brew day can start to feel not so guilt-free if you are ignoring the kids toilet that is broken or that the lawn looks like a jungle.

Homebrew Moms

Let’s not forget about the moms! Depending on the dynamic of your family, a majority of this article may apply equally to homebrew moms and dads, especially for children of toddler age and older. “I think the main thing for me is having a supportive husband...he doesn’t particularly enjoy the brewing process but helps out when needed. Usually wrangling the kiddo or doing some of the heavy lifting” says @norskebrewer.

Elena Pizano of @elenabrewsbeer has spent her pregnancy and newborn’s early months upgrading equipment, designing new recipes, and planning her next brew day.

But, newborns and babies in general can command more time and energy from mom than dad. Elena Pizano of @elenabrewsbeer is a mother of a 2 month old who is still in the planning stage of her first postpartum brew day, but has in the meantime been enjoying the hobby in other ways. “My baby is exclusively breast-feeding so he eats (and naps) every two hours during the day. I try to dedicate one of those two hour intervals per day to brewing in some way, whether its research, recipe development, cleaning, upgrading equipment, buying ingredients, brew day planning, etc.”

Newborns - (Tips for Soon-to-be and Brand New Homebrew Dads)

If you and your spouse are expecting a baby in the coming months or you currently have a newborn in the house, here are a couple things to keep in mind.

Depending on the dynamic of your family, you may want to plan or prepare for at least a temporary shutdown of your homebrewing operations. Newborns can sleep up to 18 hours a day, but these hours seemingly come in the most annoyingly short and unpredictable spurts. Even if your spouse is taking the brunt of the nursing / bottle feeding, likely you will need to be available to help with diaper changing, cooking and cleaning, rocking the babe to sleep, general house chores, and really any/everything else. It will also prove valuable to your family dynamic and bond with your newborn to be the most available in the first several weeks of life. Take time away from work if you can.

But, that doesn't mean that delicious homebrew cannot be had during this time. The “nesting instinct” is a phenomenon in which pregnant women experience a burst of energy in the weeks leading up to the birth: you may notice your spouse feverishly preparing the nursery, buying clothes, doing laundry, boiling bottles, etc. (hint: pitch in!) As a homebrew dad, you may (choose to) experience a similar burst in brewing energy. If your time permits, it can be useful to pump out a flurry of homebrew batches before your little one arrives. Having ample finished batches ready will be convenient during the first couple weeks and months of your newborn's life, and also by brewing in a flurry may lessen your longing to brew for a while once your hands are full with diapers and spit up towels.

Involving Your Kids at Different Ages

My father is what you would call a car nut or gear head. As a child I was initially impartial to the hobby. Why would a 6 year old care about cars when he won’t be able to drive for at least another 10 years? Regardless, my dad always had me by his side while working on the cars, going to car shows, at the race track, etc. He started buying me model car kits as an age appropriate way to relate to the hobby. All of this grew into a deep appreciation for his hobby, and to this day we have bond and connection over anything muscle car related.

It can be the same way with your homebrew hobby (or any other hobbies you have). In all likelihood it won’t matter that they are helping you create a drink in which they cannot partake - the important thing is that they are spending time with you and learning a craft, which can be valuable exercise and bonding experience.

Kids involvement in homebrew activities can look different based on your kids’ age :

Infants

If the weather is appropriate, and always minding safety, you can invite your baby to the hangout. If I am in a lull during mash or boil stages of the brew, I’ve been known to load up the babe into the car seat or stroller, and entertain him/her for a bit to give mom a break. Of course you will want mom on standby in case baby starts getting fussy during a critical moment of the brew day.

My first brew day as a father. I kept my 3 week old daughter outside with me as much as possible to give mom a break.

[Side story : My daughter and I have developed a bit of a homebrewing related tradition with regards to the homebrew shop. When she was an infant, I made it a habit to bring her along on any trips to the homebrew shop - babies love car naps and moms love having a break. My homebrew shop (shout out to Final Gravity Brewing Company in Richmond VA!) doubles as a nanobrewery, so I would stop in for a beer after I collected my supplies from the shop. When she was small, she would sleep through the entire trip. As she got older, I would pack a snack and we’d have a little happy hour together. I also discovered an elementary school down the street from the shop, so sometimes we will get the goods, grab a beer/snack, and hit the playground afterwards.]

My kid is always in tow for homebrew shop stops.

Toddlers

Once your kid is 2 or 3 years old, they may enjoy helping out with safe brewhouse chores, or easily be entertained while you knock out certain stages of your brew. Mine have been known to scrub pots and such (maybe on a prep day), or help stir the mash (if not too splashy). Many times I have loaded up the garage TV with a kids show and served spent grains while I sparge.

Younger and Older Kids

As your kids get a little older, they will be more prime to learning about the process of brewing. Following a recipe, making precise pH or grain bill measurements, or keeping track of timing hop additions can be fun responsibilities for your kid. It can be much like cooking with Grandma (or Mom, or you). If you are a science wiz, you can start to dig into the biology and chemistry of brewing. Learning science from dad can be a fun complement to what they’re learning at school. “I describe yeast as bugs that eat sugar and fart [carbon dioxide]” - they seem to think that is pretty funny” says Johnny D of @what_the_duck_brewing.

Something for the Kids to Taste

If you are looking for a way to implement the homebrewing concept and resulting product in a kid friendly way, you can try brewing a batch of root beer, soda, or non-alcoholic seltzer. Some dads have a dedicated soda tap on their keezers for this purpose. If you are trying to limit sugary drinks for your kid, you can try brewing kombucha as well. My daughter loved the funky taste of plain kombucha, and we had fun creating flavored infusions.

And Beyond…

By including and educating your kids about beer and the brewing process, (like my Dad and I with muscle cars) you may instill in them lifelong appreciation for the craft, and your hobby. Ken Mattingly had been a homebrew dad for over 24 years before deciding to live out every homebrewer’s dream of opening a brewery (Old Louisville Brewery in Louisville, KY). During his homebrewing years, his daughters Kat and Kels of @thebrewersdaughters grew up with an appreciation for craft beer and brewing, and now run their own craft beer blog.

Ken Mattingly, decades old homebrew dad and now head brewer at Old Louisville Brewery, is sandwiched by his craft beer blogging daughters Kels and Kat (“@thebrewersdaughters”).

Kels : “A big part of it is, [Dad] was willing to talk about it and explain it to us, and was engaged with us about what was going on,”.

Kat : “By the time I was around 5 to 7, we were able to go to Liquor Barn with Dad and help grind the grain,”

Ken : “It was a family outing when we went out to get ingredients,”

Kat : “As we got older, it was like ‘Dang this is something cool and important that Dad is doing...we need to give him time to do it... we’re going to stay out of his hair, leave him alone and let him do this.’” says Kat.

Kels: “As we say on any podcast we’ve ever been on, the smell of our childhood was hops. Waking up in the morning smelling the hops, smelling the grain, I would wake up and and say ‘(sniff) Dad’s brewing today!’ And it became a normal part of our life that we enjoyed. And Dad would always whip me up a sandwich for lunch, which was super nice.”

Get Creative

Once you are comfortable with your brewing system, and the dynamic and routine of your family, you can piece the two together in your own custom way. Open a spreadsheet or notepad to plan out how long your brew day takes and how it can fit into your day with the family. Start by jotting down the time slots you will be with your family, then see if and how you can fill in your brew tasks around that. In researching this blog post, I heard from homebrew dads with many different customized strategies.

“Splitting up the mash and boil between two different naps is a win...I’ll typically mash in right before [the kids] are supposed to be up. The youngest is awake for 3 hours, so then I’ll mash out and boil as soon as they go down [for nap] again” says expert homebrew dad Stuart Dooley.

If you are willing to interrupt your sleep to get a jump start on brew day, it has been done : “I heat the strike water and dough in….set temp and mash for a few hours while I go back to sleep” says Scott of @bad_batch_brewing.