The Top 8 Reasons to Home Brew Beer

I kind of chuckled to myself when I decided to write this post; 8 reasons to home brew beer?

I thought why in the hell would anyone need any other reason than the simple fact… its freaking beer?!? That should definitely be reason

enough… I mean come-on!  It’s God’s gift to humans to show he loves us, and as such it’s our responsibility to brew it up

One of the greatest things on this planet and YOU get to make it!  No Brainer!

But in all seriousness since you are reading this post then perhaps you need more reasons than it being just beer, so in this post I am going to go over 7 of my top reasons why you should start making your own beer.

So let’s get at’er:

It’s a Freaking Fun Hobby

Ok so if I were in my early twenties I would probably not be out brewing beer.  If I were looking for something to do I can think of a whole shite ton of other things I was finding to occupy my time at that age.

However when I started brewing beer about 16 years ago I would have been in my late twenties, I was married and I had kids.  So ya as you can imagine I was looking for something to do with my free time.

And making beer sounded like a hell of a great hobby.  I mean it was making beer! And really at that age all married up and with kids what were my options?  Playing video games or collecting stamps I suppose.

So being a man’s man I chose making beer. Lol

I can happily say it was a great decision.  Brewing up your own batch of suds is a blast and I obviously very much enjoy doing it.

Sometimes I will brew with buddies, they either come over or I go to their place.  We of course have a few pours of our previously made brews and sometimes a whole ton more than a few; sometimes we will fire up the grill and cook up some grub; and just pretty much have a grand old time.

What other hobby can you have fun like that?  Not many that I am aware of.

Cheap Booze (Inexpensive)

So I live in Canada.  We are taxed out of our minds.  Sales tax on everything and where I live it is 15%.  Which is beyond freaking insane and pure robbery, but that is a whole other topic for another day.

And as a result of the tax buying beer here is just plain stupid.  You need to pretty much re-mortgage your home to afford to have a 6 pack of beer.

In all seriousness a 12 pack of beer goes for about $25 in the government owned liquor store.  And we are talking about macro brews here, the garbage beer like Budweiser and BugLight.  The good craft beer sells for far more.

So yes when I got started I was looking for a hobby, but part of the incentive to get into home brewing was the allure of getting beer much cheaper.

I can make a full keg of beer 5-6 gallons for the same price I would pay to buy the 12 pack of the crap beer at the store.

So yes I am making homebrew to be fiscally responsible!  All about saving money.  At least that is what I use to tell my ex-wife.

Share with Friends

There is no question that sharing a beer you have brewed and are proud of with your friends and family is a fun component of this hobby.

It does the ego good to have one of your close friends tell you how much they like your beer.  Now they may just be telling you that so you will continue to feed them free beer, but whatever it is still fun to hear.

And I always get a charge out of being able to take a keg of my own brew to a house party.  Just something cool about being “the guy” who brewed up the beer.

Always Have Fresh Beer

I enjoy all styles of beer when it is fresh, however some beer especially IPA’s simply taste better when they are fresh, and they lose a lot of their hop profile when they are allowed to age.

Where else can you truly get fresh beer?

Store purchased beer is far from fresh…

Who knows how long it has been sitting at the warehouse, then it was shipped and then it has been sitting in the liquor store waiting for you to buy it.  Its old and it loses some of what makes beer what it is.

The closest thing to drinking your own beer would be going to a brew pub and having something they have recently brewed and put on tap.  However with their beer we go back to the price problem, a pint in a pub is not cheap.

So a big win for home brew when it comes to freshness.  I have made some beer that has gone from grain to glass (start to finish) in 6 days.  And that is some fresh beer right there.

And that leads to the next point which is similar…

Better Tasting Beer then Store Bought

As I have stated, the macro beer in the alcohol store is of much lower quality.

With homebrew you are brewing with only the finest ingredients.  You are able to tweak and modify a recipe to your liking; resulting in the perfect tasting beer for you.

Plus most beers in the store are simply the same old thing… typically a terrible excuse for a lager.  There has been an increase in specialty beers in recent years, but overall the selection is not where I believe it should be.

With home brewing, if you want a porter you brew a porter.  If you want a double IPA you brew a double IPA.  If you want an American Pale ale you brew one up.

You have the ability to have at the ready any style of brew you so desire.

Design Beer to Your Liking

What I really dig about this hobby is being able to make a beer that tastes exactly as I like it to taste.

I am a pale ale guy.  Not to hoppy, not to malty, just right…  Sounds like a Dr Seuss Rhyme.   Nothing worse than buying a store bought can of suds that calls itself a pale ale and turns out to be an ipa or an ESB in disguise.

I have noticed the microbreweries are brewing whatever they like and calling it whatever style they wish to call it when in fact it is nowhere near what the style should be.

So with homebrewing you can brew your beer to be exactly as you want it to be.  So when you are craving a nice cold one after work you know exactly how it is going to taste.  For me this is a big deal and a huge win for home brewing.

It’s Actually Easy to Brew

Many people think that making beer is a complicated thing.  And that is a bonus for you as people look at you like you are some Beer god.  They think “this guy must be smart”!

When in fact brewing beer is simple.  (don’t tell anyone).

It is very much like making tea.  Anyone can make tea.

Heat up some water, put the tea bag into soak, remove the tea bag and enjoy the tea.

There is a little more to brewing then that, but not much.

If you put in a little effort, get yourself some decent equipment and focus on the basics, you will make great tasting beer with hardly any real effort.  And like I said above, it is actually quite fun to do.

If you find that it is work and not enjoyable, I recommend finding a different hobby.

Meet New People

There is a huge community of homebrewers online.  This has been an added bonus and a welcome surprise to my brewing hobby.

On facebook and youtube there are a ton of communities (groups and pages) for homebrewers from across the world.  They are all great people, who enjoy sharing their recent brewing adventures with others.  They are all very helpful and like to help people improve on their skills.

They have online events where they call in and basically just chat about brewing. Most times all of us are having a few pours so the conversations can get pretty interesting to say the least.

Another fun aspect is that from time to time there will be challenges thrown out.  One of the more stupid ones I was involved in was a Chugging contest; we had to chug something like 3 beers and the person with the best time one.

We recorded ourselves on video and uploaded it to the group.  Yup pretty stupid I will be the first to admit, but it was entertaining.

The other great thing about these groups besides having friends around the world, is we all share recipes with each other.  Some of my favorite recipes I have received from people on these groups.

We have a group for Make Beer Easy on Facebook, it’s a great place to start to get to meet other brewers.  You can check it out by clicking here

And then there is Beer Mail!  Yup just like it sounds.  Get in good with some of the lads on these groups and they will send you some of their homebrew in the mail to sample and do a review of for the group.

Have to say there is nothing quite like going to pick up your mail and finding a few bottles of home-brew waiting for you!  What other hobby does that??

To Wrap It Up

So there you have it, there are my top 8 reasons to home brew beer.  There are 100’s of more reasons I could go into, but the bottom line is if you enjoy drinking this beverage of the gods and are looking for something fun to do with your time then there is a great chance this hobby is for you.

I do recommend starting slow…

Perhaps take a look on facebook for brewing groups near where you live.  In most cases these people are very welcoming to newbies.  Ask around if you can join in on a brew session.  Go watch what is involved and how it is done.  See what it is all about before you invest the time and money into your own set up.

Once you do decide this hobby is for you, start at the beginning.  Brew a few batches from the malt extract kits.  Learn the basics of sanitization, fermentation, conditioning, priming and bottling before you move into the more advanced stuff that is involved in all grain brewing.

You will find all kinds of resources on this site to help you in all levels of brewing.

Here are a few places to get started:

The following link is to an all-inclusive guide that will point you to the areas on this site to help you in all areas of brewing.  Click Here to check see the guide.

If you are ready to get started brewing up your first batch of using a malt extract kit then Go here to this post.

Once you have brewed a batch or two from a malt extract kit then move onto partial mash brewing.  Details on that can be found here.

And after you have brewed a few batches doing partial mash brewing you are ready to jump to all grain brewing.  This is where the craft beer is made.  You can get details on how it is done here.

And if you have any questions at all I am always here to help where I can.  If I know the answer I will tell you.  If I do not then I will point you in the direction to find it.  Simply drop your question in the comment section below and I will respond.

Welcome to this great hobby!

Cheers Big Robb is out.