HOPS & LOTS

Our Beginning

When I began my brewing journey, I had no idea what it would turn into. I just wanted to make some beer at home, to really gather a full understanding of what was going on; and so I didn’t have to spend a lot of money on beer at the store. Obviously, drinking a lot of beer isn’t good for you, but when you get into something like this, it doesn’t matter. There is so much science behind making a good pint of beer, and it’s truly about understanding the entire process, as well as the utilization of malt and hops. I started my brewing in my kitchen, with a single burner, kettle, and carboy. That was the beginning of a long journey. I really didn’t understand the process at first, but what I did understand, was reading and reproducing recipes, and I take great pride in that. I thought to myself, wow this extract brewing is really easy, and I didn’t have any of the equipment to really get down to the nitty gritty details. My first few brews I never took any gravity readings, and never knew what the final alcohol percentages were, because I was more focused on figuring out the processes.

After I went through a few extract brew, I began moving into the All-Grain type, which takes considerably a lot more understanding and equipment. I ended up spending a couple hundred dollars on the Northern Brewer All-Grain kit, and I really didn’t understand or like it. (Mainly because I spent more time trying to get the sparges unstuck everytime.) After that, I said to hell with this Igloo crap, it’s time to get a system that isn’t worthless to me, so I went with the Anvil Foundry All-In-One system, and it worked like magic. It was all about understanding the systems, and manipulating things here and there to get a great brew day going. In all honesty, with the Anvil Foundry, I was able to get probably the greatest efficiencies ever! It was such an easy process, and it was all in one giant tea kettle! I bought all the stuff to really start understanding the gravity readings, so I bought a refractometer and hydrometer; to really get my readings. The funny part is that we would have parties over here, and after 2 IPA’s and my buddies would be buzzing hard. They would crush a keg or two. Very impressive. Great days.

It’s important to remember where you come from, because those are our humblest beginnings! There are many learning points throughout this journey, that I learned the hard way, and it caused a lot of heartache, but also taught me my most valuable lessons.