Homebrewing, other brewing related misadventures, and the Batmen Brewing Co.
Hate fizzy, colorless, flavorless, commercial beer? So do I. The return of craft brewing to the U.S. really made me fall in love with good beer. Now mind you, I had sampled many spectacular english and european beers over the years, but about the best you could get here in america was Molson or maybe Beck’s Dark on a regular basis, so swill ruled the day (And ruined your palate).
Then came Fritz Maytag and Anchor Brewing, and Jim Koch, and his Samuel Adams beers. You take them for granted now, but in the late 1980’s, their stuff was ambrosia! We all owe both of these guys big time.
And I have to tip my hat to the former Hartford Brewery, too. I really miss those guys, especially since I work 2 blocks away from where they were located.
Anyway, my friend Bruce, his wife Kathy, and I were sitting around one afternoon, and we got into one of those conversations you get into after a few beers about what you could be doing with your time. Brewing came up. Homebrewing was just becoming popular as a hobby, and we thought it might be fun to try. So, we actually did it. Our first attempt was a clone of Samuel Adams Lager, which tasted OK, but had an extremely high alcohol content. Not really a problem, just a miscalculation. We've had a few years to refine our beers since then. Now we get adventurous with the recipes, and copy beers we like that are brewed elsewhere. We call ourselves the "Batmen Brewing Company" (Bruce - Wayne, get it? Well, Kathy thought it was kinda corny too, but what the hell).
Bruce, Wayne, and Clay the Assistant Brewer
AKA: Moe, Larry & Curly
"We
ALL put the yeast in!"
Stout
Anything Belgian
Porter
India Pale Ale
Pale Ale
Brown Ale
Extra Special Bitter (ESB)
Czech Pilsner
Marley
the Brewery Cat, guarding 2 cases of freshly bottled beer. And if you think she's a pushover, you haven't seen the
scars on Clay's face!
Photo
by Bruce Andrews
There
are actually hundreds of styles, and what you end up making at home once you start making
your own recipes is usually a combination of styles. You can bottle it with minimal
investment in dollars, or for about $300 you can keg your own. Kegging costs more at
startup, but it will save you at least 2 – 3 hours per batch of preparation time. We
do both --- we have a system
consisting of four 2
-1/2 gallon kegs, three 5 gallon kegs, and a gas manifold that can pressurize four
of them at once.
This way, we can bottle half, and keg half, or keg both halves of a 5 gallon batch,
or keg a whole batc h for a party.
Very convenient. We also have a portable CO2 injector for taking a keg to a party. The
ability to force carbonate the beer also is nice, because you can drink it the day
after it's out
of the carboy instead of waiting 4 weeks.
DEFINITELY
try this at home!!!!!!!
Photo
by Kathy Andrews
(Batmen
Brewing Co, Our first batch, 1993)
Brewing
is a lot of fun to do, and the end result is good, too.
Ale's what cures ya!
Our Recipe Book (Well, some of it)
Hops !!!!!!!! Yep, we grew 'em!
Mead! A fun and tasty diversion for homebrewers
Ode to a grain mill An old friend is retired from service
Recommended
Drinking A
few commercial beers worth a pint or two
Some
of my favorite beer quotes:
"I
would kill everyone in this room for one drop of sweet beer"
-Homer Simpson
"Always
do sober what you said you would do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth
shut"
-Ernest Hemingway
"You
can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some
kind of
a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at
the very least you need a beer."
-Frank Zappa
"When
I heated my home with oil, I used an average of 800 gallons a year. I have found that I
can
keep comfortably warm for an entire winter with
slightly over half that quantity of beer. "
- Dave Barry, from "Postpetroleum
Guzzler"
"People
who drink "light" beer don't like the taste of beer; they just like to pee a
lot"
- Capital Brewery, Middleton, WI
"I
have a thousand stories....and a beer for every one!"
-Doug Doremus, aka Scooter (As in The Adventures of Scooter and Hal)
- "There are more old drunks than there are old
doctors"
- Willie Nelson
Beer............enjoy it anywhere you go!