Drink Matron

Tag: home brewing

  • On the tenth day of Christmas, Drink Matron gave to me: Beer kits for brewin’!

    Looking for a last minute gift or family project for Christmas day? Why not get a beer kit and brew some beer? Most home brew stores have small (and large, if you want to go big!) batch brewing kits that take approximately three hours to make. Here are Adrian’s and my favorites.

    Drink Matron’s Favorite

    brooklyn brew shopBrooklyn Brew Shop

    Brooklyn Brew Shop popped up a few years ago, armed with one goal: make brewing beer easy. Their one gallon beer kits give you the chance to make high quality all-grain beer no matter how small your kitchen.

    The kit includes a one gallon fermenter, bottling equipment, a thermometer, and your choice of mix for $40. You can also buy extra mixes for future brewing. Mixes included grains, hops, yeast, and and spices when needed. After that, all you need is a free afternoon and BAM! you’re making beer. They also have five gallon kits and mixes if you want more beer, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t want more beer?

    You can find kits and mixes on their website, or check your local bottle shop or local whole foods.

    Adrian’s Favorite

    midwest logoMidwest Supplies

    It’s not just one kit, it’s all kits at Midwest. They’ve got everything you need from one gallon brewing kits to kegerator parts. No matter how you want to brew, all grain or extract, they are your one stop shop, especially if you don’t have a home brew store near you.

    Midwest was the first brewing website Adrian ever used and due to the quality of their products and the integrity of the business itself, he’s remained loyal to them for nearly 10 years.

    Midwest also provides wine, cheese, liqueur, soda, coffee, mead, and hot sauce making supplies. Seriously! This site is awesome.

    Both of us recommend…

    Your local home brewing store

    If you’d like something a little more local than a website, check out your local home brewing store. They provide the product and are staffed by experts who can help you find exactly what you need, no matter your skill level.

  • Why I Brew the Beer I Drink

    Guest Post by Brian Liebau, Our own beer brewing zombie killer.

    I got started (brewing beer) because I love beer and I wanted to learn a craft that would be worthwhile after an apocalypse. No really, laugh now, but that was my initial motivation. There aren’t many other hobbies that would benefit mankind as much while civilization is being rebuilt from scratch. You’ll see. After the meteors hit and zombies are roaming the streets, I’ll be recruited into the survivor’s compound because I’ll be able to contribute to society by providing one of those few remaining things that can bring harmony and happiness. That’s granted they have access to all the necessary ingredients and tools, but we can work that out later.

    Seriously though… back to loving beer.
    If you are passionate about beer, if you’re the type who chooses a store based on the variety in their walk-in-cooler, or who makes their restaurant selection based on tapper count, who thoroughly enjoys a crisp IPA on a hot summer day, or the warm complexity of an imperial stout in the dead of winter, if you always try the local brew or select the one unknown tap that you’ve never heard of before, you should seriously think about brewing your own… and sharing it… with me.

    If you only drink weak flavored beer or your solitary goal of drinking it to get wasted, you absolutely should not try to brew… At least not until you make friends with a home brewer and let them share their passion and appreciation for good beer with you. 

    The more someone loves beer, the better the chance that they will produce some of the best heavenly barley nectar that has ever graced the lips of mankind. When you appreciate the subtle differences in hop varieties, malted grain, and yeast strains, you will fine tune your beer into that combination of flavors that you yearn for in a commercial brew but can never quite find. Like a musician or an artist with a blank canvas, you can build your masterpiece into an exact concerto for your tongue, a Monet for your olfactory. Sure it takes a bit of luck, knowledge, and experience but that process is part of the enjoyment. The achievement, surprise, and heartbreak encountered after hours bent over a boiling pot and weeks after watching your yeast bubble away is the dream of any grown adult who had a chemistry set as a kid. Plus it’s lots of fun when your neighbors come over to ask if what you’re doing is legal or if you’re cooking meth. Then the day comes when you can pour your creation into a glass after you’ve meticulously planned its composition and devoutly tended its maturation until it finally rolls around your mouth and warms your belly… the smile on your face in that moment is the pure happiness of home brewing. Just remember, happiness is only worthwhile when shared!

    Enough of that… back to those zombies.
    Don’t fool yourself, when mankind is rebuilding after the next great flood, those who know how to produce food, ammunition, and alcohol will be the ones who survive and thrive. Mostly, it will be those with ammunition, but I’m not that great of a shot and I’ve never had a green thumb, so I’ll stick to what I’m good at. Humans have relied on beer for the majority of civilization, especially when sanitary water conditions weren’t always available. Trust me on this one, anyone facing hordes of brain eating walking dead or bands of crazed pillaging marauders will really need a beer after a long day.

    Some of Brian's homemade brew – Blonde Ale, Dark Honey Wheat, Hoppy Amber Ale, Apfelwein
    Copyright of Brian Liebau.  Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.