I am constantly wanting to "become" something. For example, "I want to become a florist" or "I want to become a photographer" or "I want to become an organic farmer." I have this funny (or pretentious?) tendency to always think I that I would probably be pretty good at many professions in life. I see someone doing something cool (something usually other than a desk job) and tend to think "hmm, I could probably do that" and then proceed to imagine myself crafting amazing floral arrangements or milking cows or capturing outrageously amazing photos. Most of the time, this all just stays in my imagination.
Not this time. This time, I want to become a Brew Master.
It all started a few months ago when I went to go visit my friend, Elizabeth, in Charleston, South Carolina. On one fateful day in July we visited a winery, a distillery and a brewery! This really wasn't too hard to do, since Firefly knocked out two of the three locations. But as nice as our first stop was, my favorite part of the day was visiting Holy City Brewery, which capped off the marathon of tastings. This local brewery had only been in business for like one year, but they had crafted some delicious beer that Elizabeth, Thomas and I thoroughly enjoyed.
As we sat there in the summer heat, drinking and laughing and enjoying ourselves, I thought of how cool it was that these guys had started up their own microbrewery. How in the world does one start such an operation? How do you learn to make beer in the first place? My curiosity naturally lead me to imagine what it would be like if I opened my own brewery. What would I name it? What kind of beer would I make? Would people enjoy it as much as I was enjoying theirs?
My fascination with microbreweries developed even further when more recently, one of my coworkers visited Port City Brewing in Alexandria, Virginia, for a birthday celebration. As he told me about the tour he took of the facility and the beer he enjoyed, I began thinking the same thing I had thought in the summer: How did these people come to open up their brewery? What a cool job that must be! After all, who doesn't enjoy a good beer? I could totally do that.
The yearning to be a creator, to make something physical welled up inside of me once again. I've always enjoyed the type of work where you get a physical end product. Some of the most satisfying work I do now involves producing reports, albeit not tangible ones.
Brewing beer began to sound more and more appealing to me.
After briefly entertaining the "I'm totally going to open a microbrewery one day" idea, I realized that instead of daydreaming about "what if" alternate realities, I could actually start a home brew operation right now in my own kitchen. I had heard of people brewing beer in their basements and such, so I turned to the internet and spent a Sunday afternoon with my pal Google searching things like "beer making kit". A few hours into my extremely preliminary research, I was sold. I happily purchased my kit from Northern Brewer and thus began my quest to become a brew master.
Brew Master Goals:
- Learn to recognize what ingredients makes beer taste the way it tastes.
- Learn more about the process of brewing, fermentation and bottling.
- Learn how to craft my own recipes in order to make my own great tasting beer.
- Share my brew and bring joy to friends and family.
- Have fun!
Potential Problems:
- Something goes terribly wrong in the process.
- The beer I make really sucks.
- No one wants to drink my beer.
- I don't actually enjoy the experience.
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| Elizabeth and I at Holy City Brewery in Charleston, SC |
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