Homebrewing. More than just beer.

When I first started homebrewing, I never thought I would be where I am today. I started homebrewing as I was frustrated by the lack of creativity in my then occupation. I didn't even drink that much beer at that point!

Most people will have a story of why they started homebrewing, either to save money or just to have a fun hobby. I have no actual clue why I decided to brew beer. As I have said, I did not really even drink beer at that time. I was frustrated, had some expendable income, and this notion of "hey, I can brew beer" came to me. It fulfilled some of my requirements/interests I have. It is technical, creative and at the end you got some beer that you can drink. Choice!

So I bought myself the starter kit. It cost me the princely sum of$110 (including shipping) and came in a very large box(which I then had to take home on a bus). My wife was enthralled! Oh yay, another project that will end up dusty and abandoned...
The kit came with a fermentor, a lager kit, a bag of enhancer and other equipment to make beer. It was awesome- I could not wait to make my own beer! So I followed the instructions to the letter! And I made beer! I will not go into all the details; you will all know how a kit n kilo is made. If not there are some great tutorials out there already.
In the end, I made beer, was it good beer? Yeah nah...But what it did achieve, was get to me hooked! I had found a outlet for my creativity, my need to learn new skills and at the end of the day, I had beer that I made myself! How could it get better?

Fast forward a few years, and where am I? Well, I am still making beer! Is it great beer? Well now, I am not sure about that, it's ok beer, but I think it can be better..(I can be a bit hard on myself, but that is another story)
I am still brewing beer and loving it. I have made upgrades to my brewing setup, I have built things and I have a couple of home brews along the way.
But, yes there is a but, there is an aspect of homebrewing that I did not expect. What is that, you say? What I did not expect, is the social aspect that homebrewing has opened up to me. I am not a social person and was turning into a grumpy old man. (Well, I am still turning into a grumpy old man...) I have met and made friends with a great deal of good people. I must say, that I was not expecting that.

This was made possible through YouTube, yep you heard me, YouTube. I started putting up videos which are called "Homebrew Wednesdays." These are basically just short videos of what you are brewing, planning on brewing, upgrades, etc. Stuff that would be boring to people who are not interested in brewing. And through these HBWs, I started meeting people from all over the world. Not only did they have the same interest/hobby as I do, they actually turned out to be pretty good people. People who do not look down their nose at you, or judge you, but try to help you. You have a problem or a question, these are the people who will help you and give you the advice that you need. In other words just good people. People who I am firm friends with and share brew days with.  I did not expect or even comprehend could happen when I started down this rabbit hole that we call homebrewing.

So after reading through my bad grammar, crappy sentence structure and maybe bad spelling(come on autocorrect, don't ducking leave me hanging), all I want to say is, if you are thinking of getting into homebrewing, do it. Not only is it a great hobby, it helps you meet some great people who will become good friends. People who you want to share a beer with. For me at the end of the day, that is all that I needed.

Thank you for reading this far and reading this post. I am pretty sure that not a lot of people will read this. If by chance, you have trolled the interwebs and stumbled onto my blog, with the idea, "should I homebrew?" I say yes! It is a hobby that will change you and take you down a road that was unexpected but is so worth it in so many ways.

Now stop reading this blog and go brew a beer! Or if you are a homebrewer, relax, have a homebrew.