Hello. My name is Brian and I am the founder and Master Brewer at Knotsmith Brewing Company. And by Master Brewer I mean I am a new homebrewer that is learning the ropes of brewing beer and the science and technology that goes along with it.
I decided to start this blog and podcast to act as a Journal for my homebrewing experiences. My goal is to talk to as many homebrewers, pro brewers, craft brewery employees and other experts in the field. I like beer, and want to learn as much about it as possible. Hopefully you enjoy coming along for the ride.
At the time of writing this blog post, I have a few extract batches under my belt. For Christmas in 2020, my girlfriend got me a starter homebrew equipment kit, and an American IPA recipe kit from the local homebrew shop (shout out to Keystone Homebrew Supply). Two days after Christmas, I had my first brew day. I had no idea going into this exactly how many dishes I was going to have to wash, but beyond that, I fell in love immediately.
Everything about my first brew day was incredible. My girlfriend and I hung out for the day while she flipped through the Brew Your Own magazine we had picked up (and once in a while pretended to help out, too!). I learned a lot about the process of brewing with malt extract, and just how sticky that stuff can be. I finally got to smell hops before they went into the beer. I had the “a-ha” moment of realizing brewers yeast isn’t all that different than yeast used for baking. It all came together nicely and I knew right away that brewing beer was something I was going to do a lot more of.
And then it happened.
Brew day was over, and I came to the harsh realization that I had to wait a long time before I could sample the fruits of my labor. The instructions on my beer kit said at least two weeks. TWO WEEKS! What was I going to do to pass the time?
The answer was pretty simple: Learn as much as I possibly could about brewing. So that’s what I did. I began reading a few books, listening to numerous homebrew podcasts, and watched countless videos on youtube. A lot of what I began to learn was over my head, but that’s ok. This is what learning is all about.
This is how I landed here today, and I hope you join me in my homebrewing adventures. Who knows, maybe we can learn something together.
Cheers!