Wanna Brew?: To Nano or Not to Nano.

Nano Brewing in the 16th Century.

I recently came upon an article written by a pro brewer entitled On Beer and Brewing: So You Want To Be A Brewer by Henniker Brewing Head Brewer Chris Shea. I was poutily drawn by the similarity. Hey he's using my blog's name except he looks like can spell real good.

So I started reading and my heart sank. Here is a professional brewer, a guy who has achieved the dream we all want and he is telling me to not try. He says if you are over 30 ( I am), married (soon to be) and don't want to be a "janitor who gets free beer" (pretty sure that's not for  me, but give me a minute to think) then I should keep my day job.

I cried a few tears of angst, made a Grrrr face and then had an Ah Ha moment. (To be fair I had already had this Ah Ha moment, but saying it is a new Ah Ha moment makes this post better). You see being a Head Brewer may sound glamorous, but evidently it is real hard, repetitive, ground pounding kind of work.

Well I'm not adverse to hard work, but if Head Brewing is as slogging as Chris Shea says then do any of us want to do it (my hand is raised and the dog thinks I'm an idiot)? If you still say yes then I have some damntastic good news for you. You don't need to go to an expensive school (I still want to), "flip kegs for minimum wage" (I have much to my back's chagrin) or spend 30 years working for the man (wish someone had told me that when I was young) to brew beer that the public will enjoy.

You can go Nano.

Thanks to recently passed laws in many states, led by my home state of New Hampshire (Live Free or Die!), it is now much easier to open a small (nano) scale brewery and tasting room that allows you to step up your brewing efforts from simply experimenting on your friends and family to experimenting on unsuspecting tourists and townies. Huzzah, America is great.

So here's my advice (and my plan). Homebrew a lot (read, learn, brew, apprentice, nicely stalk brewers, torture some friends with your newest brewing experiment) until you're confident of your skills, save a bit of cash and find a place to brew, get a Nano license and open a tap room to expose your greatness to the public.

While the 80s and 90s are the real Golden Age of the Craft Brew Movement, there has never been a better time to become a pro brewer without becoming a keg flipping wage slave. This is what America is all about.

Wanna Brew?: Go Nano.

Happy Brewing,

Chris.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.

How I Bought Charlie Papazian For $1.

Is this the Home Brewer's Bible?

Well I didn't buy the man Charlie Papazian, the legendary home brewer and beer advocate, but I did manage to find a copy of his The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing first published in 1991 for a $1. Oh, Happy Day. 

While an updated Third Edition of the book has been published, this second edition of Mr. Papazian's amazing book was the beginning of my home brewing passion. I was a newly minted beer snob and  my local home-brew store owner Scott insisted I buy Mr. Papazian's book.

I wasn't alone. Nearly every Wanna Be Brewer who started home brewing in the 1990s started with Mr Papazian's book. It is the original masterpiece that held their hand and eased them towards their first successful batch.

In the intervening decades I lost my copy of The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing and spent many a day crying into a glass of fine beer. My beer appreciation may not have started with Charlie, but it most certainly became a passion because of him.

I found this copy while in line at my local supermarket. As usual I picked the slow line and ended up behind a kindly elderly gentleman who still loves writing checks (included in his purchase was a six pack of Narragansett). Easy bored and distracted my eyes wandered to a display of books available for a charitable donation of $1. Atop the pile, was a beer stained, dog-eared copy of The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing, perhaps even my old copy.

I snagged it with joy and rushed home to crack the grimy pages while happily sipping a tasty Petite Effronte Ale from my last trip to The Portsmouth Brewery.  I'm glad you're back in my life once more Charlie. I missed you.

Smell the Hops,

Chris

Welcome to So Ya Wanna Be A Brewer

Reading Books. One step in the So Ya Wanna Be A Brewer master plan.

 If you're like me, and I'm going to assume you are, then you've held a lifelong dream to brew beer. Maybe you've never dabbled into the sudsy and wonderful world of wort or maybe you're a long time home brew star looking to take your skills to the next level.

Well you are not alone. I too have had a long time desire to make beer. I've dabbled in home brewing, sent away for info packages from the Siebel Institute in Chicago and feared that my inability to grow  the one trait all great brewers seem to share, the brewer's beard,  may doom my chances of ever joining their ranks.

But despite my facial hair inadequacies I have resolved to become a brewer one way or another.

So I've made my brewing resolution. Now what?

Um.... yeah. Hmmmm.

So I don't know how to get from A (barely brewing) to Z (brewmaster), but there are tons of people out in the world who do. There are Brewmasters, HR people at big breweries, nano brew pioneers, brewing educators, beer writers and bloggers and many, many more, etc and junk.

Together these people know everything there is to know about how to become a brewer. Maybe I'll just ask them. Maybe they'll help me (and you) go from [insert unsatisfying current job] to a brewing professional.

Eureka. That's it, and that is the entire purpose of So Ya Wanna Be A Brewer. Think of it as a Doofus' Guide to becoming a Brewmaster, except that I'm the doofus.

But I am determined to shed that doofus label. I'll talk to experts, read books, take classes, go to seminars, sup beers at festivals and go on brewery tours. I'll immerse myself in the sudsy beverage that changed the world and come out the other side educated and ready to brew.

Will you join me?

Chris

Follow me on Twitter @chriscarney
Email me your thoughts. cmcarney@gmail.com