If you’ve been thinking about brewing your own beer as a hobby or side business, you’ll join 1.1 million Americans who make craft beer. The primary motivation for craft beer brewers is that it’s a good business, but many will also tell you that it’s a great hobby. Here are good reasons that you should consider making craft beer as well.
1. It’s Plain Fun
Brewing beer in the comfort of your garage or basement is like bringing out your inner mad scientist. You get to fiddle around with fire and a cauldron of boiling water and have a direct involvement in creating something through fermentation that could either turn out disastrous or delicious. You get to pretend you’re a brewmaster for a big-time beer brewer, experimenting with ingredients like Hallertau hops you can get for sale, malt, and yeast. If you have an adventurous streak, you can even try adding weird ingredients to your craft beer, like bananas, mustard seeds, and even bull’s testicles.
2. It’s Educational
A good deal of science goes into the production of a craft beer, and you’ll have to know a lot of it to come up with a tasty brew. You’ll have to learn about the right amounts to put into the mash, what temperatures to get the water to and for how long to maintain it, and what proportions of ingredients to mix. You’ll also learn about how the yeast does its magic in the fermentation stage. Brewing your own beer will give you a better appreciation for what goes into making beer and for how chefs do their culinary craft, as a lot of cooking goes into beer.
It’s a Potential Money-Saver or Earner
In terms of equipment, all it takes to make your home brew is a basic starter kit from a home brew vendor and a five-gallon pot. Making your own home brew can help you save a bit of money since you don’t have to spend on gas and take the car to go to a bar. You also don’t have to buy beer every weekend. And while you can’t make money selling your home brew, you can practice to get good enough and get hired as a brewmaster or brewmaster’s assistant at a microbrewery.
3. You Can Make a Lot of New Friends
There are enormous online communities for home brewers, and these are decent folk who like to help newbie and aspiring brewers get their first brew to come out fine. Home brew supply stores in the US are also full of brewers who are happy to help. You’ll be surprised at how helpful and friendly the craft beer community is in the US, and they’re that way mostly because they’ve been where you are now and someone helped them out.
4. It’s Something to Be Proud Of
Getting a home-brewed batch of beer right after trying a few times evokes a feeling of pride and a sense of achievement. Taking a sip of a beer that tastes good and knowing that you created it with your own hands in your own basement or garage can kick your self-esteem up a notch. While you may never make the kind of money or get the sort of fame the big boys in the beer industry enjoy, you know that you can come pretty close if given a chance.
Learning more about science and the science of making beer, making new friends, and doing something worthwhile are the intangible rewards you can get from home-brewing beer. It doesn’t take a lot of money, so why not give it a try?
