There is a possibility this post may change your life for the better in the coming New Year. If you have never brewed your own beer before then consider some of the reasons I make in this post it might just make you pursue one of the most satisfying pastimes you can begin.

The Best Beer You Can Get

There’s no doubt in my mind that a carefully constructed home brew that you have created yourself is just as good, if not better than any you can buy. The reasons for this are more than the technicalities of taste and flavour. Just like whenever you make or craft something yourself there is much more satisfaction cracking the cap off a beer you have brewed yourself.

I will paint a picture for you if I may. You have sourced the best ingredients you can find, you have taken your time and set aside a few hours to lovingly steep your grains and boil your hops, waited a few weeks for fermentation and now for a few weeks your home brew has been sitting in the cupboard maturing. Now the time has come to open the first one, the sense of anticipation has been building so you crack the cap on one and savour your beer like no other commercial beer you’ve tasted.

Brew What You Want

This is a major positive for brewing your own beer. You don’t have to settle for what is available in the stores because you can think I want a (let me make a point here) Choc Mint Stout, yeah that’s right you want a smooth chocolaty, minty stout one day and start making it the following day.

Although I have seen some wild and wacky beers made, many of these are one offs or seasonal so by being able to produce your own, you can have them at any time.

Save Some Money

This is probably one of the biggest reasons a lot of people say why they start home brewing and that’s because it’s true. The raw ingredients to make beer are a tiny fraction of what the cost of the final product is. This is the primary reason why I and many other home brewers I know began brewing.

That does not mean for one second that it cannot be a drain on your finances if you want it too. I’m sure that if you have ever pursued any hobby you know that you always want the next best thingymabob or the other widgetyflip. Just bear in mind the start up cost of equipment required to make your own beer is offset after 1 or 2 batches. After this period you are then saving money on every brew.

Be Sociable

Home brewing can be one of the most social enterprises you can start. First off when you start telling your friends you have just made 5 gallons of beer you will notice they start taking a sudden interest and maybe arrange a get together. There is no doubt that giving your friends a beer you have crafted yourself will impress them to no end.

Along with this, if you are inclined there are all sorts of brewing competitions you can get involved in. This brings you together with other people who all share your desire to create great beer and a whole sense of competition and camaraderie that will mean you meet new friends and maybe more importantly, improve your home brewing.

So maybe if you are trying to think of a New Years Resolution, consider starting a new hobby.

Neil McDonald is the author of the home brewing blog Mash.Sparge.Boil.com. He started brewing his own beer as soon as he was old enough to drink and is a general all round beer enthusiast.

Note: This is a guest post from Tom Holmes.

Home brewing alcohol was popular among the Chinese, Egyptians and Mesopotamians. These recipes they had were eventually shared with the Greeks and Romans. It was the Sumerians, however, that first wrote these recipes and instructions down. They would also sing a recipe to the beer goddess Ninkasi because very few Sumerians actually read and write.

From Ancient Times To The Americas’ Past

Nothing stays the same in any civilization; some civilizations will rise in power while others are killed off or assimilated. With these changes in civilizations, there are also changes in laws. For instance, one of the first things the Pilgrims did after they landed at Plymouth Rock was build a brewery so that when their alcohol supply got low, they could easily make more.

Any beverages that contained alcohol were not put into mass production until the age of the Industrial Revolution, which took place in the 1700s. Hydrometers and thermometers were created and these aided in the home brewery process. These tools were considered efficient and reliable, which helped brewers make quality alcoholic drinks.

Home brewers started a whole new chapter on brewing thanks to French microbiologist Louis Pasteur who explained how yeast influences the fermentation procedure while being brewed. Brewers then started coming up with varying strains of yeast that would actually yield beers and wines in the complexities they wanted.

It seemed all was going well but again, times change. The United States passed the Prohibition Act that made it illegal to home brew and drink alcohol. Here’s the catch though: it didn’t do much good as people still made their alcoholic drinks and drank them. Since nobody could purchase alcohol in public, home brewers came up with Moonshine and Bathtub Gin to cover the cravings.

It wasn’t just the home brewers who were cashing in; grape growers were also getting in on the action, as the need for grape juice became evident. Thus, grape growers acquired 700 percent more fields to keep up with the growing demand. When shipping grapes off to their buyers, grape suppliers would provide a warning label telling them how they could make wine using creative advertising.

The act was eventually repealed in 1933 but there was just one problem; it didn’t legalize everything for home breweries… just wine. This meant that home brewing beer was still illegal. That is, it was illegal until 1979, when then-president Jimmy Carter signed a bill lifting the regulation. However, state legislators are allowed to decide if they’ll ban home breweries.

Currently, only two states ban the practice:

• Mississippi
• Alabama

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Tom Holmes, publisher of HomeBarReviews.com and former bar/restaurant owner. Tom first became interested in beer and wine-making a few years ago when his children gave him a wine-making kit for a Christmas present. Ever since, Holmes has looked for up to date bar designs and trends and stays current with the latest news and information in beer and wine-making.

Today, he uses this knowledge in conjunction with his knowledge for home bar furniture and equipment to share with others. So if you’re ready to do some home brewing of your own and want a bar for the home, check out his website HomeBarReviews.com to see what he has to offer.

Brewing beer is by far the best and most satisfying hobby that I’ve run across. How great is it to spend a few hours brewing beer while drinking a few beers, then a week or two later bottle your brew while drinking a few beers, and then a few weeks later get to taste the beer you created?

When I tell people I brew beer, they always have questions. How much does it cost to start?  Wouldn’t it just be cheaper to buy beer already made?  Honestly, it can be an expensive hobby, but it doesn’t have to be.

If you’re serious and can afford to spend a few hundred to get good equipment, I suggest you go down to your local brew shop and let them help you.

If you are interested in home brewing, but don’t have a lot to spend, or are not sure if you will enjoy it enough to spend a few hundred dollars getting setup, I’d suggest getting a home beer brewing kit.

I’ve had beer made from two kits, and each had completely different results.  The first I’ve tried was from Mr. Beer, and honestly it tasted like crap.  It could have been the way that batch was made, but I would probably stear clear of it.

Last August I was in New York and tried two beers from a Coopers brewing kit. I was pretty impressed with the quality for how cheap the kit and the ingredients where to get started.  I had the IPA and the wheat beer.  While not the best beers I’ve ever had, it sure beat the taste of most micro beers out there.

Once you get the kit for $99, you can make 6 gallons of beer for about $20 (includes malts, hops, and yeast), which is a pretty good deal if you are toying around with the idea to get started home brewing.  Plus if you realize that you enjoy the brewing process, you will already have some of the key pieces of equipment so it won’t cost to much to upgrade.

Here is a video on their website that shows what is included.

The Coopers kit includes:

• 1 Plastic 30 liter fermenter with lid (and o ring), makes 23 liters (6 Gallons)
• 1 Hydrometer
• 1 Sediment Reducer
• 1 Plastic Spoon
• 1 “Little Bottler” tube and bottling valve
• 1 Tap
• 1 Airlock
• 1 Airlock grommet
• 1 Thermometer
• 30 740ml PET bottles and caps
• 1 Instruction booklet
• 1 Instructional DVD
• 1 Cooper’s Lager Beer Kit Package – which includes:
  • 1 1.7kg Coopers Lager Beer Kit Concentrate with yeast
  • 1 1 kg Coopers Brewing Sugar
  • 1 Bag of Carbonation drops

Check out Coopers beer kits here.

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Geoff Spakes. Geoff is a longtime homebrewer trying to balance his love of craft beer with his passion for distance running and CrossFit. If you would like to contribute a guest post to BlogAboutBeer.com, please contact me.

Nothing goes together quite like a tasty brew and the great outdoors, even better if it’s your own painstakingly crafted concoction. Trying to escape the heat wave that’s hit the Colorado Front Range my homebrew buddy and I packed up the families and headed to the high country for some cooler air. Besides all the typical camping gear that is required we also loaded a cooler full of our favorite homebrew.

Two of our newer brews were tucked away in the coolers awaiting their appointed time of drinking…two radically different recipes meant to be drunk under very different conditions. The first, Meyer Lemon Hefeweizen, is designed to go down easy on a hot summer day. After a painfully long two hour drive, we arrived, setup camp and hit the trail for a quick hike…it was the perfect activity to get a quick blast of mountain fun and relax after the hectic unpacking.

Of course back at camp we eagerly dug into the cooler, pulled out a liter bottle and filled two glasses. We were greeted by a white fluffy head and a cloudy pale liquid; raising the glass to take a drink the tangy aroma of the Meyer lemons rose out of the glass. The first sip was just as expected, cool and refreshing…a light summer wheat beer with just enough citrus to make things interesting.

Meyer Lemon Hefeweizen

Batch Size: 12.00 gal
Boil Size: 13.74 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 4.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.3 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients
20.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
2.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
2.00 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)
1.00 oz Summit [17.00 %] (60 min)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min)
12.00 items Meyer Lemon (Primary 7.0 days)
1 Pkgs American Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP32)

Mash Schedule: *Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 24.00 lb
*Single Infusion, Medium Body

60 min Mash In Add 30.00 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F (Step Temp)
20 min Mash Out Add 16.80 qt of water at 196.6 F 168.0 F (Step Temp)

Notes:
Zest and juice lemons; boil juice, rinds and zest for 15 minutes. Add rinds to boiling wort for 60 minutes and add juice and zest to primary fermenter.

Are you a home brewer with some good recipes that you want to share with the brewing community? I’m currently in the process of putting together a beer recipe guide and would love to include your recipes. If you feel that you have a good recipe, please submit it via the contact form and I’ll include it in the guide, which should be available in the next few weeks.

When submitting the recipes, please include the following:

• Beer Name
• Category (ex: Pale Ale, ESB, etc..)
• Type (all grain or extract)
• Ingredients separated by fermentables, hops, yeast, and others)
• Procedure

It doesn’t matter if you are an amateur, as long as you like your recipe, I’d love to include it. I might even send you a gift if it looks so good that I decide to brew it myself.

Have a great day!

Homebrewing beer has been legal in the eyes of the federal government since 1979. Little did I know, however, thatthere are still a few states which consider homebrewing to be illegal. I know — weird, right? But as of this week, the states which outlaw homebrewing is down by one (now only two states remain; Alabama and Mississippi). House Bill 2348, sponsored by Representative Colby Schwartz and Senator Mike Schulz, officially legalized the home production of beer for personal use in Oklahoma. Home production of wine and cider for personal use was already legal in Oklahoma. Below is the rest of the press release which was distributed Monday by the Brewers Association/The American Homebrewers Association. Congratulations, citizens and brewers of Oklahoma!

The passage of HB 2348 leaves Alabama and Mississippi as the only remaining states where the homebrewing hobby is not yet legal. The U.S. government made homebrewing legal on a federal level in 1979.

“I’m excited to see Oklahoma finally bring homebrewing into parity with wine and cider, and it was an honor to author the legislation,” said Representative Schwartz. “The success of this measure would not have been possible without the overwhelming support of the active homebrewing community in Oklahoma.”

The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) estimates that there are approximately 750,000 homebrewers in the United States, including 7,000 homebrewers residing in Oklahoma. Oklahoma and Utah are the only states to have legalized homebrewing in the last 10 years.

Gary Shellman, AHA member and editor for Oklahoma City’s homebrew club, the High Plains Draughters, initiated the legalization process and worked tirelessly to ensure the bill’s passage. Shellman spent months lining up a sponsor for a homebrew bill. He kept up with the bill throughout the process, advising the bill’s sponsors and reporting on the bill’s progress to the American Homebrewers Association staff and Oklahoma homebrew club members.

“Our theme from the very beginning was to get support from all sectors of the brewing community to bring parity for homebrewed beer with that already long enjoyed by home wine and cider makers,” said Shellman. “We are proud to say that we finally got the job done, but none of this would have been possible without the diligent efforts of Rep. Colby Schwartz.”

The American Homebrewers Association assisted the legalization effort by providing advice and by mobilizing Oklahoma AHA members and Brewers Association member breweries in support of HB 2348.

“Gary Shellman’s dedication to homebrew legalization and the response of Oklahoma’s homebrewers has been truly inspiring,” said Gary Glass, director of the American Homebrewers Association. “I’m glad that the AHA was there to help with the process, as I believe that legalizing homebrewing for all U.S. citizens is one of the most important issues that the AHA addresses.”

The AHA is currently working with homebrewers in Alabama and Mississippi on efforts to legalize homebrewing in those states.

As any long-time BlogAboutBeer.com reader knows, I’ve been dabbling in homebrewing beer for years. I still stick to extract brewing (for lack of equipment, space, time, attention span, etc.) but I brew pretty regularly and like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at it.

Therefore I’m personally surprised it took as long as it did for me to try my hand at some other kind of home fermentation. That all changed this weekend when I brewed my first batch of Kombucha. Kombucha, as you may or may not know, is an ancient tea with origins in Russia, China and Japan which is fermented, and therefore has a very low alcoholic content (sub 1 percent).

Many folks, myself included, feel that Kombucha is an “elixir” which helps cleanse and revitalize the body, boost energy and speed up metabolism. Plus, it’s damn tasty. You can get bottles of kombucha commercially (any Whole Foods will have lots to choose from), but it’s expensive – usually about $3.50 a bottle. But you can brew your own at home, for about $1.50 a gallon.

The recipe and the brewing process of Kombucha is really quite simple, especially if you’re used to brewing much more complicated batches of beer. The tricky part is locating a SCOBY — often called a culture or “mushroom”, the SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) is what ferments the Kombucha tea — but I bet if you ask around, you’re bound to find some friends who have a SCOBY to spare. I was amazed at how many people I knew brewed their own ‘Booch and volunteered to pass along a baby SCOBY for me to use. If not, you can buy SCOBYs online (although they’re a bit pricy) and have them shipped to you. Or you can grow your own using the sediment from a raw, organic, unflavored bottle of commercial Kombucha (but it takes a couple of weeks to form).

After you have your SCOBY, all you need is 5 or 6 tea bags (caffinated, plain black or green; I used black), a cup of plain ol’ white table sugar, and a gallon of spring water. I brought half of the gallon of water to a boil, took it off the heat, steeped the tea bags in the water for about 20 minutes, removed them, stirred in the sugar until it disolved and then added the 1/2 gallon of sweet tea to the other half-gallon of cold water in a gallon-sized glass jar (an old pickle jar. Unfortunately a homebrew carboy won’t work because the mouth isn’t wide enough to fit the culture).

Once the liquid had cooled to about 70 degrees, I added the SCOBY and a half-cup of an old batch of Kombucha (from the same friend who gave me the SCOBY), covered the jar with a couple paper towels (rubber banded on) to serve as a makeshift airlock (and fruit fly lock), and put it in a warm, dark closet to hang out and ferment. In about 10-14 days, the batch will be done fermenting, at which time I’ll remove the SCOBY (and put it in a Tupperware in the fridge along with a 1/2 cup of the tea to use next time), and bottle the Kombucha for 3 or 4 days (so it can continue to carbonate) and they it will be ready to drink. What I need to do a little more research on is how to flavor my batch. I know some people who have added real flavoring to their bottles — like grated ginger, apple slices, blueberries, etc. — while I’ve seen other people use extracts common to homebrewing beer. And even still, I know that commercial Kombucha companies use fruit puree to flavor their batches. So I’ll report back on the direction I choose when I, well, choose it.

Have you ever brewed Kombucha before? What have your experiences been?

A new open-source application has hit the Interwebs designed specifically for the homebrewers among us. The application, entitled Brewtarget, is designed to help homebrew enthusiasts create and organize their beer recipes. Apparently, it’s a free, open-source version of Beer Tools. From the Brewtarget homepage,

I was fed up with the lack of good open source beer software, so I thought I would make a small application that would do all the calculations for me.

The ultimate goal of the project is to be able to take a set of user-given constraints and immediately formulate a recipe.

A similar open-source program, Brewsta, was also released recently at Source Forge. Any homebrewers out there have any experience with either of these programs?

[Via LifeHacker]

This is a guest post from my friend Jake. Jake is an aspiring home brewer that loves beer, sports, and the state of Maine. Born and raised here in Maine and now living in the suburbs of Portland, he brews his own beers and loves to try any new brew. He is co-editor of incessantrambling.com along with fellow BlogAboutBeer.com guest contributor Hokie. You can follow Jake on Twitter @IRdCjake. If you’d like to contribute a post to BlogAboutBeer.com, please contact me.

Beer is good…at least I hope you believe that. If you’re reading this blog, I will assume you agree with me. If not, please go somewhere else.

I brew my own beer. I thought I could make a Dogfish Head my first time. Boy, was I wrong. Beer is a complex beverage that takes time to get right. You cannot give it a wing and prayer…good beer is a work of art. Raphael wasn’t a master sculptor every statue, though I’d love to have been that talented.

I’ve brewed Browns, IPAs, Nut Browns, Stouts, Strawberry Wheats, and other assorted beers. Only once did I strike out. My Strawberry Wheat exploded while conditioning and soaked my entire pantry closet. I received a phone call from my better half. “Jake, your beer exploded…you need to clean the closet when you get home.” “Yes dear.”

I love making beer. You are in command every step of the way. You make every decision. How much malt, how much hops, how long do I boil, do I add more hops for flavor or do I say it’s good. It’s all your choice. You get to choose style and then go from there. You can make beer from recipes available online, in books, or from friends or you can just wing it. Every beer is different…even if it’s from a recipe. Just using a different water changes the taste of beer, just imagine if every product in the world was changed by a simple difference like water. Computers chips would have different speeds from the region that the copper came from, quality of video would change depending on the type of silicon used, and sheet metal would be weaker in certain regions of the world.

Beer is the ultimate social equalizer. You can be a millionaire, slumlord, or on welfare, everyone drinks beer. It was the beverage of choice for years…it’s easy to make and everyone can. Humans have been drinking beer longer than any other fermented beverage. It has been around since we’ve lived in the crescent of civilization. It was healthier than drinking water and it still is in many parts of the world. Anyone can make beer and everyone should. Making your own beer is the epitome of local economy.

Have I already said that I love beer? Everyone who enjoys beer needs to home brew. It’s easy and isn’t very expensive. By making your own beer, you will understand what makes beer taste the way it does and where the flavor comes from. Brewing your own beer gives you flexibility and the ability to push the envelope on what you drink. As Ben Franklin said, “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” So go out and get in touch with “God” and brew beer. Relax and have a homebrew, folks…I look forward to trying yours as you can always taste mine. Cheers!

Saw this little tidbit yesterday in the New York Times and thought it was too good of an idea not to pass along. Two Gen Y-ers like myself, Stephen Valand, 23, and Erica Shea, 25 of Brooklyn have quit their respective day jobs to start theirown homebrew supply shop, of sorts. Their new venture, the Brooklyn Brew Shop, makes one gallon-sized homebrewing kits, specially designed for New York City apartments.

The couple starting selling the kits in early July at the Brooklyn Flea Market and online. But before deciding to jump into business together, they went on a seven-week backpacking trip to Europe to see if they were compatible.

I really think Valand and Shea are on to something here. I really like the idea of one gallon brewing kits. 5 gallons is a lot of beer to make all at once. Being the craft beer fan I am, I like to drink as many different beers as possible. So being stuck with two full cases of the same beer at the same time is a lot to go through and I often find myself giving a lot of my homebrew away so that I can get back to variety faster.

I also like to experiment with my homebrews — isn’t that half the point? — and am the first to admit that I’m still no brewmaster. So, with those two things in mind, five gallons of beer is, or can be, a pretty risky investment. If I could brew batches by the single gallon (and had the proper equipment to do so), I would be a lot less worried about losing a hefty investment and could be more adventuresome in my brewing.

Valand and Shea are bootstrapping their project and reinvesting every dollar of profit they make into the company to help it grow. It’s great to see an original idea and that kind of drive and motivation from the young folks — and young Better Beer fans — out there. Congratulations on the first step and good luck with the future, guys! (Note: you can follow the Brooklyn Brew Shop on Twitter @bklynbrewshop

[image via brooklynbrewshop.com]