So as you may have noticed, there have been an increasing amount of beer review posts on this site, and you may be thinking to your self “who is this pompous know-it-all think he is passing judgment on those who have taken the initiative to contribute to the craft brew world and create a beer”, or “what a douche!”. Well, at least that’s what I think when I read these posts! So, to dispel any accusations of douchbagary the Bren and Sven team has decided to augment its laboratory capacities by adding a home brew kit to the mix and brewing a bit of our own bubbly fun.
While mechanics may have MAXIM centerfolds pinned up in their shops, we have this pinned up in our lab. Gotta love those curves!
Now given our very genuine love of the beer, we knew that if we were going to do this, we must do it right, so that means we must head to the mecca of Los Angeles home brewing supplies; Culver City Home Brewing Supply Company (CHBS). Given the company’s reputation and relative prominence among beer lovers in the LA area we were expecting a great mega store of beer and beer accessories, err not quite. It was a homely little shop, disheveled and smelling strongly of hops. In it were a collection of portly, pale, male patrons and a few beer geeks running the shop, so needless to say we were home (minus the portly part, we haven’t developed the dreaded beer gut out of fear of completely losing any chance of a sex life). Given our beer brewing virginity, we stared awestruck at all the lovely toys, grains, tools, hops, yeasts, and brewing accoutrement that we had, until that point, only read about in beer books. Noticing our relative dumbfoundedness and awkward fumbling around the small shop, one of the resident beer geeks/ shop clerks, quickly came to our rescue. So we laid it all out for him, we were new, had no idea what we were doing, we love beer, please help! Just as a side note, stating that you love beer is an international statement of brotherhood and is often used at the UN to avoid another world war. Now that the brotherhood of beer had been established, our beer Sherpa lead us through the treacherous task of picking out uor first kit and deciding on what to brew.
The kits. Well this store offers three main kits, which can been seen in detail here. Since I am lazy, have already consumed a few beers while writing this post, and don’t want to eat up a full blog page, I’m not going to outline every item in our kit, but the kit we did end up getting was the Standard Kit. In our opinion this one provided the best bang for our buck and as we learned through out the brewing process, provided everything we would need for beginner brewing. It was also the one most highly recommended by our brew Sherpa. Also, you should note that when selecting a kit remember that, like motorcycles, you can get a relatively basic one and then spend several times the cost of the kit on accessories and add-ons, so only get what you need and then expand as your skills as brewing creativity grow.
All we need to get our beer brewing!
*Note: These kits make about 45 to 50 12 fl. oz. bottles of beer, but do not come with bottles (caps are included in the kit), so you have two options in obtaining bottles; 1) The BrenandSven method of consuming 50 or so bottles of beer during the fermentation period and saving the bottles, or 2) buying the bottles from CHBS for 50 cents a pop.
Like bottles, Barmaids are also not included in the kit, so you'll have to find your own way to serve beer. Yeah we were sad too.
Be amazed in all its golden goodness!
Our first love child: the beer. Now that our kit has been sorted out, it was time to decide what our first destination should be on this maiden voyage of bromantic brewing. Should we go with a porter, a stout, a dunkel, a witbier? All these choices raced through our mind. Once again our wise and insightful Sherpa lead the way. We found that given that this is the middle of summer (we purchased all this around mid July), the best beer for brewing and for consuming would be a Belgian Witbier. Now we know that these beers are great summer drinks due to their light fruity flavors, but we didn’t know that another reason that they are popular in the summer is because they are easier to brew in warmer temperatures than other beers. This beer’s fermentation time was shorter and the yeast used in the beer could withstand slightly higher temperatures, thus increasing its success rate over other beers when brewed in the summer. This may not seem like a big deal if you live in a cooler area, or in an area that has houses with cellars or basements, but given that we are in California, the temperature is hot, and basements turn to pancakes during earthquakes, so the beers ability to brew in the summer heat was a very important factor in determining which would be our first.
With that said, it should be stated that even though we went with a Belgian Wit beer (the specific recipe was CHBS’s own creation called “Wit Men Can’t Jump“) , which works better in the summer, we still had to assure that the beer stayed within 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 24 degrees Celsius for the rest of the world), and that was a thermal engineering feat by itself given that the summer temps are usually in the mid to high 90’s F (get a converter rest of the world) in our area of residence. Ah and the Sherpa shines again! The solution to this, though it evaded our beer soaked mines, is amazing in its simplicity; a water bath. Stick the whole thing ( that’s Bren speak for a primary and secondary fermenter) in a big ass bucket of water, water does that whole latent heat thing so it maintains a much more constant temperature than the surrounding air, thus keeping the yeast in the happy zone. To make sure the water is at a proper temperature, we would just add 1 liter frozen water bottles to the water bath, which would melt over time keeping the temperature low and perfect.
With our brewing conundrums solved, our kit purchased, and our first beer chosen, we departed Culver City Home Brewing supply company with a hop in our step and wit (trust me that’s wit not whit) on our minds, ready to take this brewing journey.
Live the Journey- Bren
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