My Beer Journey

I picked up homebrewing back in 2007, when I was pretty stressed at work as a junior doctor. (I like to think of that as a most explicit example of sublimation.) I started off like most people with a nice, shiny Cooper's kit. I believe the first one I ever tried was Cooper's Real Ale kit. In any case, back then I was still messing with carbonation drops, kit yeast and PET bottles. And fermentation was done in the bathroom, that being the coolest room in the house.The beers then were OK. And I mean it - just OK; drinkable at a pinch if you need some alcohol, but not at all the "craft brew" standard I was hoping to achieve. My wife still loves to tell people that I used to bootleg alcohol in the bathroom!

A stout from Cooper's kit .. just dissolve, boil, cool and add yeast.

I'm not entirely too sure what happened after, but I took a hiatus for a few years and only resumed brewing in 2011. As an aside, I did find a few bottles of my very first kit brew recently - they tasted like wet cardboard. The homebrewing scene has changed in these few short years - there were actually proper homebrew shops now (but only 2 at present), more people were brewing, and there was a CLUB. Woot!

Steeping grains over the stovetop.

Once again I plunged my sorry ass back into brewing from kits, but gradually pulled away in steps (as is the natural progression for many homebrewers). I flung out the packet of yeast taped to the kit's lid, and started messing around with various other yeast strains - both dry and later, liquid. Then came steeping specialty grains to add to the kit, which brings about a touch of freshness to the malt flavour. And subsequently, the late-hopping and dry-hopping. Finally, I went on to using just extract instead of kits. I later jumped straight into all-grain in late 2011.

For all-grain brewing, I really only did no-sparge, BIAB (brew-in-a-bag) all-grain batches, although from time to time I still indulge in brewing from extract. My first local competition entry was a Dunkelweizen in 2011, which scored 38/50 - not too bad for a first time!

Subsequently I've started to refine my own brewing process, starting from upgrading yeast propagation equipment, to buying a fermentation fridge, to getting a beer tap at home. It's a fun hobby which benefits everyone! And I've also simplified my processes, which cut down the time needed on brewday from 6-8 hours to the current 3 hours.

Since about 2013 or so, much of my brewing has started to focus on wild and sour beers, and the microbiology behind these fermentations. Don't get me started on the bunch of yeast-related nicknames that friends call me ... but I truly love the microbiology behind it all.

As I'm fond of telling people - brewers are just slaves to the our yeast; we make food and create the perfect environment for these puny single-celled organisms, and then hand out the yeast poop for our friends to drink.