For the Love of Craft Beer!

For those who know me, I am a lover of craft beers! I love everything about them from the craftsmanship, the tastes, the cool designs on the bottles, its origin or where they are brewed, the stories that sometime appear on the bottles, the recipes that are created with the beers, the ingredients used in making them, and the dishes they pair well with.

 I may sound snobby or snooty like I don’t appreciate a domestic lager, or don’t invite me over for a drink because I only like those weird beers, but that’s not the case, I believe there is a time and place for everything.

What I am a fan of is culture and lifestyle. It seems the craft beer scene has that and more. I have drank craft beers in the east coast of Canada, Chicago but mostly here in Ontario where we have a very vast and diverse scene. Toronto/GTA seems like every burrow has its own brew shop.

Just North of home, in Barrie, there is Flying Monkeys, Barnstromer Brewpub, Gravenhurst has Sawdust City, Bracebridge has Muskoka Brewery, Baysville has Lake of Bays, South River has Highlander Brew Co., and that’s just to name a few.

You would think all these craft brew makers would be in a constant cutthroat competition, but they all work together. They help each other, they all share the same goal and passion, and they are also the small guys fighting for a bigger cause; to give us the consumer a choice. It is good to know as a consumer where our spent beer monies go, and it’s great to see that it goes to these hardworking individuals that make it all happen.

Enjoying a craft beer is one thing, but brewing one is a whole new experience all together.

This week, I decided I wanted to brew my own batch from scratch. I have had homebrew before, usually in Newfoundland leading up to Christmas time, to save a bit off money homebrew is the way to go. Usually it’s a kit, add water to some kind of premixed base boil it let cool, add some yeast then let it ferment, bottle, then done! I wasn’t a fan. I wanted it to do it all.

I remember when I was a teen and my dad brought home a case of Steamwhistle.  When I started enjoying beers, all I saw was regular domestic brown bottle beers, Molson or Labbatts, and when he came home with this green suit case style box, I was intrigued. The bottles were unique, a different shape altogether, and the caps popped off. It was so interesting to me! It just looked good! It looked like someone took a lot of care in putting this together. The packaging, the visual imagery was very appealing. My eyes had me sold before I could even drink it (legally as well). Needless to say, it only contained 4 ingredients: water, hops, grain, yeast. Wow! I never knew then what seed had just been planted in my brain. I was attracted to craftsmanship before I knew what it even meant!

Once I was legal drinking age, I went on a tour of the Steamwhistle Brewery. That was the first of many tours that it got to the point where I almost knew the tour word for word. It was funny when the guide got tired of me finishing off his sentences, smartass!  

My love for craft beer started when I was in culinary school doing the in-class portion of my apprenticeship, and we had to do a wine program. It was a bunch of us hooligans getting our buzz-on first thing in the morning, and of course I always swallowed never spat. We always filled our glasses more than we were suppose too for tastings (cooks)! My final project was a written review of 3 different bottles of wines from different grape growing regions in the world, and I stated my case to the instructor that I am a beer guy! I am interested only in craft beers. I wasn’t passionate about it, and that’s the first line of the paper. To this day, I have that paper buried in a box somewhere. The instructor, who was also in the wine business appreciated my honesty, and thought it was cool because the craft beer scene was on the verge of exploding!

So now, here I am, 12 years later of legally drinking beer, about to brew my first batch of all grain beer. All I have ever known about brewing was that it is a very precise and complicated scientific procedure. It requires skill and knowledge, and most of what I learned is thanks to Brian Wilson, who is the 'Brewmaster' at Highlander Brew Co. (South River, Ontario), he is a perfectionist and this is his life!

 I then looked up some Youtube videos, the subject they was even more intimidating. It also seemed like a huge financial investment for me to try my hand out in something that might not even work. As luck would have it a Facebook ad popped up on my news feed for an all grain beer kit, a little one. It’s called Brooklyn Brew Shop and I had to investigate. With further research I just had to try it so I went out and got the kit. The kit included a one-gallon recipe that would give me 8 pints of beer, which was perfect!

Basically, it’s a scaled down brew kit suitable for people who live in small spaces such as apartments! It amazing to find out that the company was founded by a couple in Brooklyn who were trying to save a few bucks, but also loved craft beer and wanted to be creative at the same time, and created this kit. They released 2 books on recipes for the kit as well! Not only that it's super easy to use, none of the intimidating jargon, just the simple terms to teach the fundamentals to making a great batch of beer, from scratch. It’s also a great gateway kit for people new to home brewing and want to try it out, without breaking the bank! I haven’t been able to put down the books either. They have great recipes and stories from around the beer world and all can be done over a stove-top!

Now we wait to see how my batch turns out and I really cannot wait to try it.

Thanks again for keeping up with Vinyl, Food and Beer.