Sometimes you just have to jump right in.

Homebrewing has long been a fascination of mine.

A good friend started me thinking about it years ago, describing the process and extolling the virtues of Charlie Papazian and his Complete Joy of Homebrewing book. It just never made it to the top of the pile. Once in a while I would pick up a book, or a magazine, or an article online, and it was always something in the back of my mind. I was in college and up to my ears in work, and when I graduated there were more things that were important than starting a new hobby.

These, of course, were the first years of the ‘craft brewing revolution’, as it were. A college friend had worked on a proposed brewery expansion project for his thesis, and Harpoon’s IPA was probably the first craft brew I can remember drinking. Up until then it was all your typical mass-produced lager and it’s ilk, with the occasional Guinness or Heineken thrown in for variety. Sam Adams was the next craft beer that I remember trying, and their brewery was still a regional New England startup at that point. Pete’s Wicked, Sierra Nevada and Magic Hat were all newcomers on the scene, and we enjoyed trying different beers as we traveled around. Then along came grad school, marriage, kids, my own business start up and a house, so anything else was shelved for the near future.

It wasn’t until several years ago when our kids were all in elementary school and we started to get our legs underneath us that the idea of brewing at home popped up again. I found a copy of Dave Miller’s Guide to Homebrewing in a box along with a recipe book that I had purchased along with it at a store in Vermont years before. Some of the information was a bit outdated, as a wider variety and improved quality of ingredients are more readily available now, but much of it was still relevant to someone just getting started. Couple this with our growing interest in different beer styles and the ‘second wave’ of breweries that were springing up all over and the time was right.

An online sale for a ‘complete’ homebrewing kit popped up and I decided to take the plunge….