Thanks for joining us on your new beerginnings! The Home Brew blog aimed at brewers at any level but designed from the ground up to be a resource for new or potential brewers to help them get a head start in the hobby.

First, a little about me, my background and history with brewing. Sean here, I have been brewing for about 2 and a half years in Brisbane, Australia.

Like many home brewers, my day job has nothing to do with brewing, I am currently a manager of a technical department in a university specialising in creative industries so my day consists of helping to run the team that hires and maintains all of the Audio and Film equipment as well as some building maintenance. My background is in customer service, having worked for Apple for a number of years but I developed a passion for management and leadership so here I am.

My brewing journey has been quite short so far. I’m hoping to learn as much from this blog as any of you!

My first introduction to it was when I started dating my now wife. Her father has been brewing for decades now and it was the first introduction for me to the idea that you can make great beer at home. I obviously knew about home brewing as a concept but had heard so many horror stories of undrinkable brews, explosions and the like that it put me off the idea of ever attempting it myself. Once I discovered it was a very attainable goal, I immediately wanted in.

I started out with absolutely zero knowledge, a borrowed plastic fermenter, some borrowed bottles (I ‘forgot’ to return these) and a store-bought extract kit. This was hopped extract so it’s basically a matter of rehydrating with the right amount of water, adding sugar and yeast and you have beer. Things have…escalated since then.

I am the type of person that loves to deconstruct things, I like finding out how and why they work. I’m utterly fascinated by process, you have a specific thing you do in a specific way for a specific amount of time and you have a measurable outcome at the end. So naturally I started reading, listening and watching.

I trawled through brewing material online, bought and read books (The complete joy of home brewing by Charlie Papazian) and listened to podcasts. What I found that was common through all of this research was the following:

• There is an overwhelming amount of information out there.
• This could get expensive.
• It doesn’t have to though.
• I am so excited to dive head first into this hobby.

Since then I have moved on from hopped extract to extract and grains, partial mash and finally all-grain brewing. Each decision I made to go onto the next step was made because I had a specific goal in mind that my current method would not allow me to do. With each step or change came research, sometimes new equipment (both bought and home made) to make sure I was as set up for success as I could be. I still messed up, you will too, my advice is to accept it and move on. Each ‘failure’ should be looked at as an opportunity to improve. I have improved significantly since the following:

• Dropping a pair of scissors into the beer – turned out fine!
• Letting it boil over on the stove – beer was fine but I spent 4 hours cleaning the cupboard underneath and all the pots and pans it contained.
• Bad cleaning practice – beer was not fine, tasted revolting.
• Overcarbonation – terrifying bottle bombs, I dumped several batches that day to be safe.
• Silly mistakes – added 2 hopped extracts together in 1 brew as an experiment, beer was not fine, bitter and nasty.

I’m excited to see what this blog becomes and as I said earlier, I hope to learn as much through the writing and research for this blog as you might gain from reading it.

WHAT’S NEXT? Tune back in soon for a background on brewing, the hobby, culture, and how the home and pro brewing industries interact and influence each other.

So long for now.

Best,

Sean

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