Reflecting on Entering my 10th Year of Homebrewing
As we enter a new year, it occurs to me that I am entering my 10th year of homebrewing. From the first sip of the first bottle of my first batch nearly 10 years ago, the hobby has consumed me.
I thought it might be interesting to show a couple photos and jot down a brief summary of each year of my brewing history. This exercise has shown me the various ways I’ve been able to improve my beer and brewing techniques little by little over the years. These little adjustments, compounded, have really changed the quality of my beer in a big way, and improved my understanding of the brewing process.
2012
My first homebrew batch.
My wife, seeing my interest in craft beer, suggested I try to brew a homebrew kit. Reminding me of my college comrades' disgusting attempt at what I now know was a Mr. Beer kit, I promptly dismissed the idea. She bought me a kit for my birthday anyway. I was relieved to discover that it was not that same plastic barrel-looking kit I’d seen in college, which I assumed was the only homebrewing kit that existed. (and BTW, I now know that Mr. Beer kits are a completely respectable way to start homebrewing. Unless you are my college buddies. Ugh.) Instead, my first kit turned out to be a really delightful 1 gallon stove top all grain kit by Brooklyn Brewshop, made specifically for apartment brewers like me (at the time). My first batch was a jalapeno saison which came out nice. My second batch was a chocolate maple porter which was amazing - upon tasting the first bottle, I immediately walked down to the local Books-A-Million (do they still have those? Remember book stores?) and bought my first copy of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian as well as a my first copy of Brew Your Own magazine. Shortly after I signed up for a subscription to the mag which I still have today.
Best Brew : Chocolate Maple Porter
Worst Brew : none!
Equipment : 1 gallon stovetop kit
Awards / Accomplishments : Self pat on the back
2013
It didn't take me long to discover NorthernBrewer.com, which in addition to being an online homebrew store, available to browse and brainstorm at the leisure of your cubicle job while you were supposed to be doing something else, it also contains a wealth of homebrewing articles, tutorials, and forums, much of which is catered to beginner homebrewers. It also didn't take me long to discover and understand the importance of supporting my local homebrew shop. Quickly I realized 1 gallon batches could be gone in a weekend, and make the move to scale up to 5 gallon extract kits which I could do on my apartment electric stove. Obsession intensified. I was late for my wedding rehearsal dinner because of some delays in my black IPA brew day I was trying to get done before going away for the wedding and honeymoon :-) Luckily my fiance wasn’t too mad and went through with marrying me. (Times like this I like to remind her that I didn't want to start homebrewing but it was she that forced me into it, and thus any brewing related frustration is actually her fault). Alas, for the wedding, I brewed 10 gallons each of a hoppy amber ale and raspberry wheat out of the kitchen of our 1BR apartment to give out as party favors to our guests.
Best Brew : Red White & Brew Pale Ale
Worst Brew : Pumpkin Wheat (drain pour)
Equipment : Stove top 5 gallon pot, plastic fermentors
Awards Accomplishments : Brewed 20 gallons for my wedding
2014
Based in those Brooklyn Brewshop 1 gallon all grain kits, I was dissatisfied with extract brewing and, without the proper equipment to do so, I began ordering and brewing 5 gallon all grain kits (still on the apartment electric stove, using multiple pots to hold and boil all the total wort required) At this point I was able to branch out and started brewing recipes from magazines and online, as well as experimenting with creating my own recipes. Started spending time on label design and sharing my brews more with fam and friends. I secretly brewed two cases of winter ale with company mascot themed labels and brought them into the office Christmas party. My first share with a large group and it went well. Homebrew starts to become a majority of the beer I drink. My apartment bedroom closet is filled more with empty bottle storage or conditioning bottles, than clothes. My fridge is filled more with homebrews I’m protecting from over-carbonation, than food. My poor wife decides to continue staying married to me. Because, it's all her fault.
Best Brew : “Night Train” Cognac oak American strong ale
Worst Brew : Pumpkin Dubbel (off flavors and undercarbed, but wife liked it anyway)
Equipment upgrades: custom made lauter tun for all grain brewing; counterflow wort chiller.
2015
Homebrew is now clearly a majority of the beer I consume. I am brewing more than I can drink myself. Mainly I brewed basic stuff - pale ales, wheat beers, porters, amber ales - for my daily sippers. Started experimenting with yeast recycling, attempting to clone commercial beers. Through trades and bottle shares, I finally got first sips of some of these “New England IPAs” such as Heady Topper and Sip of Sunshine. Immediately started up the homebrew attempts at the juicy stuff. Won my first award, a 1st place ribbon for best IPA in the D.C. state fair. First traces of my experimental wing of homebrewing as I decided to do stuff like throwing a chocolate birthday cake into the mash for an imperial stout. Nowadays they call that pastry stout. I grew two hop plants, one Centennial and one Cascade, in pots on the balcony of my 8th floor apartment. Brewed first batch of hard cider (wasn't great)
Best Brew : Conan (first new england IPA)
Worst Brew : Hard Cider (became vinegar)
Equipment upgrades: none significant!
Awards / Accomplishments : 1st place IPA category of DC State Fair
2016
My wife, still miraculously married to me, and I decide to make our exodus from the city. After losing in a bidding war on a house on Brewer’s Lane, we moved into a better house with a garage and a sink. Pretty fast I moved up to a more typical propane setup in the driveway. My car had the luxury of being parked in the garage for the first couple nights before I started filling it with stuff like a chest freezer fermentation chamber, workbench, and eventually a custom built 4 tap kegerator made from a stand up freezer. I kegged my first batch a couple days before my birthday which fell on a football Sunday. Except I lost the entire CO2 tank because of a leak. That was the first and not the last time I lost an entire tank (at a critical moment no less). Before the end of the year, I brewed my first lager.
Best Brew : Nationale Pale Ale
Worst Brew : none!
Equipment Upgrades : chest freezer fermentation chamber, kegerator, propane burner
2017
In 2017 I really started diving deeper into creating my own recipes. Experimenting with smash beer and simple recipes to understand ingredients. Also stepped it up a notch in the experimental department. I brewed what I called an Australian raw ale (don’t ask). I started working on beer clarity when appropriate. I started my Instagram account, which was supposed to just be sort of a diary - an outlet for me to openly write and post into, since my poor wife and casual beer friends were tired of hearing me babble about day and night. I never thought anyone would see, read, like or follow. Most times I would log into the account, post my photo and mini blog entry, and then never looked at it again for a week or two until I had something else to post about. Later in the year, I brewed my first batch of red wine (wasn't great)
Best Brew : “All The Rage” hazy DIPA
Worst Brew : New Zealand Raw Pils
Equipment Upgrades : Finally built a real igloo cooler mashtun (had previously been mashing in my kettle and/or plastic bucket with towels for insulation).
Awards / Accomplishments : Local homebrew legend and owner of Final Gravity Brewing Tony Ammendolia told me my Vienna lager “was pretty good”
2018
In 2018 I was dialing in my process, and I brewed some nice clean tasty lagers. Also nailed some hoppy hazy IPAs. After tasting a single can of Tired Hands strawberry milkshake IPA over the previous Christmas holiday, 2018 became the year of the milkshake IPA in my homebrewery - strawberry, peach, blueberry, mango coconut. The mango coconut version “Mango Maya”, I brewed for (the adults attending) my daughter’s first birthday party. Clearly the best beer I brewed all year, I rebrewed it and entered it into the Stone Brewing / American Homebrewer’s Association Homebrew Competition, and it won first place. I hung out with Stone founders Greg Koch and Steve Wagner before I knew who they were. I was slated to collaborate with Stone in 2019 to scale up Mango Maya for a national distribution.
Best Brew : “Mango Maya” Milkshake IPA
Worst Brew : Jalapeno Saison - funky off flavors
Equipment Upgrades : more fridges…
Awards / Accomplishments : Won 1st place in the AHA / Stone Homebrewing Competition
2019
In January I brewed my 100th batch of brew, my first barleywine. Later I made my first attempt at a legit imperial stout. But far and away the theme of 2019 was my collaboration with Stone. Due to some complications in planning, my scale up was scaled back from the national distro plan. I was still ecstatic to be doing anything, so in July I was hosted by Kris Ketcham of Stone Brewing Liberty Station in San Diego where we brewed 30bbls of Mango Maya. In August the beer was released at Stone taprooms on both coasts. In October, I traveled to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, where Mango Maya was pouring at the Stone booth and was also entered in the Pro-Am competition. It did not place. Strangely, a guy from my homebrew club won silver in that category. We did not know each other were there.
Best Brew : OBX19 - NEIPA
Worst Brew : “Howie Kendrick” festbier - (reused poorly maintained lager yeast, horrible off flavors, possibly DMS, drain poured)
Equipment Upgrades : Blichmann Beer Gun
Awards / Accomplishments : Brewed collabs with Stone; attended GABF; Gold medal for marzen in NOVA Classic; Silver medal for Belgian Tripel
2020
The year no one wants to talk about. I was and am still thankful I had a hobby I could participate in alone at home, and that the homebrew shop remained open during the pandemic. It may sound strange to say, but there were aspects of the pandemic that I enjoyed. Being at home all the time with nothing to do meant I brewed a lot more. Working from home meant I could get creative with brewing on weeknights by starting my water and mash during the work day. Participated in dry January for the first time and brewed my first non-alcoholic beer (wasn't great). First partigyle brew day. Upgraded to electric brewing using a cheap Digiboil kettle running on standard 115v power. Made my first foray into water chemistry, which really changed my west coast ipas and lagers in a big way. I started my YouTube channel and, after putting it off for 5 years, finally built a website. I brewed a really good festbier and marzen that won me hardware in local competitions, and became two of my favorite beers that I brew. I filmed myself brewing my award winning mango coconut milkshake ipa, and messed up the batch (episode never saw the light of day). Collaborated with local artists.
Best Brew : RB Oktober Festbier
Worst Brew : Munich / Bravo SMaSH beer (metallic off flavors, drain pour); Mango Maya (accidentally used “American noble” low AA and flavor reduced version of citra hops)
Equipment Upgrades : Digiboil electric kettle, Oktober Can seamer
Awards / Accomplishments : Gold medal for Festbier and Silver for Marzen in Dominion Cup
2021
Came back to some old recipes to rebrew and refine. Continued some successes with fruity beers, hazies, and lagers. Blueberry hazy IPA with mosaic hops was one of my favorites. More experiments with beets, pizza yeast, potatoes, corn grits, egg nog, etc. In the garage I was lucky enough to receive some new equipment on sponsorship, upgrading from my Digiboil and plastic bucket to a Grainfather G40 along with stainless steel conicals and a glycol chiller courtesy of BSG. Again I collaborated with another local artist, showcasing a couple beer batches at an art show featuring his art on the can labels. Stone called me back to California to brew a bigger, badder 120 bbl batch of Mango Maya on their big system in Escondido, which became a can release. While in town, I linked up with Kris at Liberty Station again and we brewed a 15bbl batch of my blueberry hazy IPA.
Best Brew : “Blueberry Yum Yum” - hazy ipa w/ mosaic hops & blueberries
Worst Brew : “Bear” imperial ipa brewed with honey (hornindal underattenuated, too sweet to drink, drain pour)
Equipment Upgrades : Grainfather G40, stainless conicals, glycol chiller
Awards / Accomplishments : More collabs with Stone including Mango Maya can release; Gold medal for RB Belgian Single; Bronze medal for Virginia Breakfast Stout
2022 and beyond…
Some years I set a clear list of goals for the year. This year is a little less formal. Some immediate goals are beers I really want to brew : a chocolate blonde ale for (the adults attending) my son’s first birthday party (the beer I brewed for my other child’s first birthday was Mango Maya, which went on to be a major success, so maybe I strike some magic for the 2nd kid as well?)
I also want to take a serious, more educated swing at brewing some thick bodied heavy stouts and barleywine. My wife bought me an oak barrel for Christmas, so I need to fill it with something ASAP.
I have a handful of recipes for classic beers that have come out well in the past few years that I would like to rebrew for my first submission to the National Homebrew Competition. Pilsner, Belgian blonde, Belgian tripel, festbier, marzen, vienna lager, and some others.
Process-wise, I’ve bought the equipment to try closed transfer kegging some hazy IPAs. With the heavy stouts and barleywines in mind, I also finally threw down on a flask and stir plate for yeast starters as well as an oxygenation kit. Yeast should be happy in the garage this year. I also bought a floating dip tube I’m hoping will help me pour clearer lagers and west coast IPAs.
In the bigger picture, I am trying to grow my online presence, mainly my YouTube channel. But also my blog. My primary outlet for years has been my Instagram account, but the nature of the platform lends to my content being essentially lost / irrelevant after a couple of days.
In the bigger bigger picture, I am starting to think about whether I want to continue this path to becoming a homebrew expert and guru. I’d love to build my reputation to the point where I could write articles for homebrew magazines, give talks at conferences, and maybe even write a book.
An alternate path that every homebrewer has dreamt of, is opening a brewery…I’m starting to kick the tires a little harder on this idea. What size? Can I make any serious money? Can I afford it / will I be able to raise funds to do it? Do I know enough about beer (I think so) and brewing (maybe) and the brewing industry (probably not) and running a business (definitely not) to get started? This is not going to be on the roadmap for 2022. But I do want to continue learning bits and pieces of information here and there to figure out if this could be a serious venture in my future.
What are your goals for 2022?