I made my first batch of beer sometime in late 2000, with my close friend and fellow \u201cresidency widower,\u201d Todd, in Minnesota. Medical residency is a long and lonely process for the spouse, and I developed a fine set of skills and hobbies waiting for it to be over. Over the years, I\u2019ve learned from a lot of other folks \u2013 and even a book or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For whatever reason, brewing beer is a wonderfully masculine activity. This is odd, because the process is essentially the same as making soup. If you enjoy doing dishes \u2013 you\u2019ll probably love making beer. I know lots of women who drink beer \u2013 yet few of them have shown any interest in the process by which it is created. When I find myself at a social event, sitting with a group of men that I don\u2019t know all that well, brewing beer is one of my go-to topics to keep the conversation moving. It\u2019s complex enough to support a deep and geeky knowledge of esoteric details \u2013 yet simple and cheap enough to allow easy access for the novice. I\u2019ve spent many a pleasant Saturday with a couple of friends, putting a couple of batches into primary fermentation, usually with a football game playing itself out on an unwatched laptop in the corner of the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my early years of brewing, I would make only the most extreme recipes. I was always trying for the 12% ABV, the insanely over-hopped, or so on. These were never very good, and I found myself not able to brew more batches because all my bottles were taken up. I limit myself to six cases of bottles and a five gallon keg. That\u2019s four batches \u2013 which is absolutely more than enough. At this point, I have a pair of recipes that I try to keep in stock for guests (and for me) \u2013 one clone of Bass Ale, malty and rich, the other an American \/ Indian Pale Ale \u2013 hoppy and bitter. In between, I mix up experimental batches. The current experiment is a \u201crauch\u201d beer \u2013 made with smoked malt. I\u2019ve made one of these before, and it turned out tasting strongly of bacon. While there\u2019s nothing wrong with the taste of bacon \u2013 it\u2019s not a good beer pairing. This new batch has turned out a lot better. I still don\u2019t particularly *like* it, but I\u2019m pleased that I\u2019m able to create a beer that tastes like it\u2019s supposed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bottling is a slow and methodical process \u2013 and is a great opportunity to ruin your batch by failing to pay proper attention. Last night, I bottled a batch of the IPA in preparation for our holiday party. I found myself reminiscing on other batches, and on the ephemeral nature of craft projects. A batch of beer \u2013 even the best one ever \u2013 is still just a batch of beer. It\u2019ll be drunk, enjoyed, and gone in time. The same is true with pickles, dried apples, and most of my other hobbies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I find that I\u2019m getting to be okay with impermanence these days. I find that the beer helps a little \u2013 and oddly enough, it\u2019s more the bottling than the drinking where I find the real comfort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I made my first batch of beer sometime in late 2000, with my close friend and fellow \u201cresidency widower,\u201d Todd, in Minnesota. Medical residency is a long and lonely process for the spouse, and I developed a fine set of skills and hobbies waiting for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hobbies","category-real-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1515,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514\/revisions\/1515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}