A Marketer’s Tale of Homebrewing

Brock's Homebrewed Nut Brown Ale.

Spending less, eating local, buying local, doing it yourself, doing things with others–these are all part of the zeitgeist as we begin to close the door on the economic armageddon that was 2009.

We’ve entered the Age of Quaint.  People are vacationing at home.  We go to the farmer’s market. We’re cooking and eating meals as a family.  Our President and his wife are even tilling the White House lawn for a garden.  But nothing quite captures today’s recession-induced Norman Rockwellian spirit like brewing your own beer!

That’s what I was telling myself about six weeks ago as I strode out the door of Maine Brewing Supply with a spanking new home brew kit and a box full of grain, malt, hops, sugar and yeast.

Waxing thrifty, I brewed my first batch with a friend in my kitchen.  Clean the bucket. Boil the water. Toss in the ingredients, and let the yeast do its thing.  It was all too easy, like committing a crime, although homebrewing has been perfectly legal since at least the Carter administration.

Two weeks later, my wife joined my bootlegging operation as we racked, primed, and bottled our five-gallon stash of nut brown ale.

After another few excruciating weeks of waiting, I popped open the first bottle last night during dinner. (Leftovers, by the way.)  Perfect head.  Decent legs on the glass. Nice aroma.  Not too yeasty.  Fresh.  Smooth.  You’d have no problem sipping it warm and flat: the definition of good beer.

OK, I could have tossed in another handful of hops during the brew phase for a fuller body.  But nothing is perfect on the first try.