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…