Last night I brewed a batch of Pale Ale with some friends. We had a fantastic time. It’s been a couple of years since my last batch, so we had to re-familiarize ourselves with the whole process. A couple of thoughts popped into my head as we were enjoying the evening and the brew process:

• If you really get into the chemistry of brewing, it can be unbelievably complex.  However, the core process is reasonably basic and easy to get a handle on.  With a little equipment, anyone can do it.
• Brewing is a fantastic social activity.  We brew in the garage, with camping chairs and a turkey fryer.  It is basically a campfire setting… but around the wort instead.  There is a lot of down time in between steps where you have time to connect, hang out, and share ideas about the next batch.
• There is a very creative element to brewing and collaboration can be really fun.  We used a kit for this batch, which limits the creative scope, but we still had some fun discussing a few options we had within the recipe.
• Explaining this process to 3 year olds can be a bit tricky.  Let’s just say my son’s brew vocabulary is a little more detailed than I’d like it to be…