How long have you been homebrewing? I made a wine kit with my sister in Jan 2005 that didn’t turn out very good. I bought my first wort kit (Baron’s Brown Ale) in Oct 2005 at the suggestion of my wife. It was light in taste and fizzy, but I was hooked. So I’ve been brewing for just over 4 years now.
How long have you been an ALES member? During the first year I was brewing, I had been going around to all the local homebrew shops looking for supplies, and they all recommended that I join the club, but I was too intimidated. In Nov 2006, I entered 2 beers in the Festiv-Ale competition which was run by ALES, and was absolutely shocked to have one of them win 2nd place overall. I got a couple enthusiastic emails from Dean Holroyd and Jamie Singer encouraging me to come to the Festiv-Ale after party where I was warmly welcomed by other members such as Jim Van Dusen, Gary Falkenstein and Walter Martin. I attended my first meeting in Dec 2006, and I haven’t missed one since.
What do you enjoy about the hobby? The club? The possibilities are endless when it comes to brewing, so you have the opportunity to get really creative. But then there is all the science behind it, which requires a great deal of precision. So I find this hobby really stimulates both sides of the brain. Basically, I’ve never been bored with brewing, there is always that NEXT batch to look forward to. And there are not too many hobbies where you get to drink the results! I have become friends with so many club members, all of whom are willing to share tips, ingredients, equipment and of course beer. My wife can only tolerate so much “beer talk,” so it’s nice to be around other folks that share in my passion. I have been to many of your houses, and my door is always open to all of you. Beer truly is a social drink, it is meant to be shared.
How much/often do you brew in a year? I brew a 5.5 gallon batch every 6 weeks. I plan these beers out 12-24 months in advance, and they are mostly bigger/extreme styles that I am fond of, so about 8-9 batches per year. I fit in another 2-4 batches of what I call “family beer,” which is lower gravity, and more likely to appeal to my non-beer geek family and friends. I usually end up doing 1-2 batches of mead or cider as well.
What is your favourite style(s) to brew and drink? Why? My favourites to brew are actually the lower gravity “family beers” because they are less work… dealing with 3-4 hrs of boiling, 25lbs of spent grains and 1lb of hops for some of my beers is not always fun. As for drinking, I appreciate and enjoy just about every style. However, I rarely exceed 1-2 beers in a sitting, so I tend to prefer beers with maximum flavour and impact. If given an unlimited choice, I’d probably choose a fresh, insanely hoppy double IPA or a BIG Imperial Stout. But if I had just had one of those, I’d want something else. I almost NEVER drink the same beer twice in a row, I like variety.
Is there a particular beer that you are most proud of brewing? Yes, it was a Vienna/Oktoberfest. It was my first attempt at a lager, and my first time using a lot of munich/vienna malt. It turned out fantastic, and I won a lot of medals and awards with it. I’ve never brewed another lager since, as I’ve been focusing on American style ales with a couple Belgians thrown in. I’m sure at some point my focus will return to lagers; I’d love to do a hoppy Czech Pils and a malty Schwarzbier.
What is the craziest beer you brewed? How did it turn out? I did a second runnings beer from an English barleywine. The gravity was about 1.025-1.030, so I bumped it up to 1.055 with brown sugar and tried to make an ESB, just to see what a beer with 50% sugar would taste like. I ended up calling it Extra Stupid Bitter because it was a very stupid experiment.
Can you briefly describe your brewing setup? I do all-grain brewing. Schmidling Maltmill for crushing grain. Batch sparge in a 52qt rectangular cooler with stainless steel braid. Use RO water and whole hops. 12.5 gallon keggle for boiling. 25ft copper immersion chiller. Pure oxygen for aeration. Ferment in a chest freezer using external temp controller with probe. Use Better Bottles for dry hopping (wider opening makes it easier to add/remove whole hops) and sour beers (BBs allows a little O2 in, which is a good thing with sours), glass carboys for everything else. Currently bottle conditioning, but starting to accumulate kegging equipment.
What would be your desert island beer? That’s a tough question because I get bored drinking the same thing. I’d want something that would hold up over time because I might be there for awhile. I’d also want something big and bold so that I would have an easier time rationing it. Sounds like an Imperial Stout would fit the bill.
What else do you do when you aren’t brewing (or drinking) beer?
I work in IT for the provincial government, although I don’t do much hands-on computer work anymore. I have been playing guitar and singing in old-style punk rock bands for about 14 years. I’m really into vinyl records, mostly old country, rock n roll, and r&b/soul from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Like most beer geeks, I also love good food and cooking, primarily Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, southern-style BBQ, and artisan cheese. My wife Joanne and I have no kids (yet), so we get to spend a lot of time together and travel (nowhere exotic, but we always manage to find good beer and food).
