It is an interesting time to be a beer lover and enthusiast. Restrictions are being lifted on what and how people can brew across the nation and it is leading America into a sort of beer renaissance. Craft breweries are starting up at a crazy rate and are slowly but surely stealing away market share from the major breweries that produce cheap, tasteless, light beers and that put more effort into marketing their beers than they do into making them. For someone that has dreams of opening up a brewery themselves (like me), these facts can be both encouraging and alarming. Since there are now more than 1,700 breweries in the U.S. and more than 600 in planning, it can be a little overwhelming wondering how the hell someone is supposed to create a profitable business with all of that competition. Luckily, most craft beer drinkers do not only like one type of beer or even one brand of beer regardless of how good it may be. People like variety and that's what craft brewing is all about--delivering tasty and unique beers with fresh and, sometimes, unusual ingredients.
After ten days of aging the bottled Honey Wheat Ale in a dark corner of my living room it should be ready to drink. In the meantime I will continue to read (I recommend "Brewing Up a Business" by Sam Calagione, Founder of Dogfish Head) and educate myself as much as I can about the beer world. Oh, and have a homebrew from a previous batch of course!
It was great meeting you today at Roth. This posts says a lot about how you are studying to become a better brewer. The two books you mention are great. I would also recommend "How to Brew" by Palmer. It is a big book with a lot of scientific detail, but you will really learn the "why" of everything you do when you brew. You'll read it once, then pick it back up a few months later and come away with new lessons you completely missed the first time. I like it better than the Papzian book, but they are both great reads for beginning home brewers.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing about your brewing progression and hopefully trying some of your beer. We should definitely get together and brew sometime and talk about your ideas of starting a brewery someday. I love shooting the shit like that...could do it all day, haha.