Frugal February #24: Home Brew

Mmmm, beer!  Do you like beer?  If yes, read on!  If no, what is it that you don't like?  Barring religious objections, is it a flavor issue? 

Once upon a time, I did not drink beer.  In fact, until I was 30 I refused to drink beer.  The few times I had tasted it, I did not like it, and I'm not one of those people who can choke down something yucky tasting just to be polite.  Peer pressure has nothing on picky eaters (or picky drinkers, lol).  So, no beer for me. 

Then in early 2002, DH took me on a trip to Montana, and while there I tried a microbrew.  He'd been raving about them for a few years, and had even started brewing his own.  The one he had on that trip was a different style than what he usually drank, and he offered me a taste, telling me I might actually like it.  I had to admit, it smelled pretty good.  So, I tasted some of what he was drinking that night.

One sip and I was in love!  It was so good, so unlike any beer I'd ever tasted before.

I changed my mind.  It's not that I don't like beer, it's that just like with food, I don't like bland, tasteless, watery beer!  I don't like common beer.  I don't like mass produced, commercial beer.  I like craft beer.  I like quality stuff, lol.  Especially quality stuff I can personalize.  (And yes, I've attempted to make my own Moose Drool, but have come to the conclusion that Michigan water does not taste quite the same as Montana water when making beer.  Close, but not identical.  Anybody from Montana want to come for a visit and bring me about 20 gallons of water?)

This post is about making your drinking (especially your craft beer drinking) more frugal by home brewing.  It's not all that complicated, and it's fun.  Kind of like playing with a chemistry set that you get to drink the concoctions from.  :0) 

The most expensive part is getting started and amassing the equipment.  There are many ways to do this, and being creative can help--like making a wort chiller out of copper tubing from the home improvement store instead of buying one ready made. . . or making a mashtun out of an old igloo cooler and some pvc pipes and a ball valve. . . or using that turkey fryer you fried a turkey in exactly once, to boil your malt and hops.  After you've got the basic stuff, let the savings begin!

We began home brewing in 2000.   I got the kit--carboy, bottling bucket, racking cane (the siphon you use to get the beer from the carboy into the bottling bucket), capper, hydrometer, thief (what you use to get a sample from your fermenter for taking a gravity reading with the hydrometer), and a couple dozen bottles, for $7.50 at a garage sale.  The same kit that cost, at that time, over $100 brand new at the local homebrew store.  Those who scoff at garage sales really should keep an open mind.  They're more than old tools, musty books, knick knacks, outdated clothes and cassette tapes from the '80s.  Especially the ones in fancy subdivisions where the homeowners must have the latest fads but then don't use them.  We all ready owned some large pots (like 4 & 5 gallon sized ones) since we had four kids and were used to cooking in big quantities, and the first few years we brewed on the stove in the kitchen.

Over time, we moved the brewing out of the house.  In the summer, it's done on the patio at the back of the house.  In the winter or in inclement weather, it's done in the garage, with the doors partially open for ventilation.  DH is dreaming of the day he can erect a brew haus at this little place here, complete with running water and heat piped in from the outdoor wood boiler in the winter. Maybe in another year or two. . .sooner if we can get ahold of some more free lumber!

We've progressed from the ready-made kits with malt syrup, yeast and hops included to buying 50 pound bags of barley, specialty grains by the pound, and doing whole grain brewing. We also grow our own hops now too. We own a malt mill, several carboys, a keg converted to a 10 gallon brew kettle (complete with ball valve on one side near the bottom), a wort chiller, a mashtun, a few 5 gallon 'cornie' kegs, a CO2 system and a fridge with taps in the side of it.  Not to mention several books with recipes for different styles of beer.  Oh, and DH's Christmas present from DS2 last December: a periodic table of beer. (It's a homebrewing/engineering kind of thing DS2 discovered at that engineering college he attends).

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share the beer making process with you. . .mainly because I'm usually too busy assisting in the brewing to remember to take pictures of each step.  But I'm sure there are lots of tutorials out there on the internet if you do a search for them.

If you like fancy beer (in other words, it doesn't come mass produced in aluminum cans, and there are no commercials on TV for it), becoming a home brewer is a step toward long term frugality in your beverage consumption.  Brewing 5 gallons for about the price of a case of lesser quality beer just can't be beat.  Beer is, afterall, mostly water, so why pay an arm and a leg for somebody else's flavored water? Take your own water, add grains, hops, and yeast, and make some beer!