Homebrewing 101 - she CAN be taught!

Before I delve into the hilarity that is my personal experience of this class, I’ll cut to the chase for those who don’t feel like reading the novel length account of my randomness. The King County Library System is currently offering classes in the art of beer making. ‘The Basics of Homebrewing’ is led by certified BJCP beer judges and expert home brewers.

We had the awesome luck to be showered with the pearls of wisdom by Dan O'Leary & Mike Hausenfluck. Both guys are insanely knowledgeable about their chosen craft while utilizing humor and visual aids as a teaching method. Methods I do well with as I’m mostly a visual learner. Considering they gave me a precious little hop flower to fondle, there’s pretty much nothing they could do wrong at that point.

Hop flower.

Although I reside in World de Beer quite often, I admittedly don’t know much about how beer becomes beer to even be considered dangerous. When Basil said she thought we should start homebrewing, I was mildly interested. Mostly to the extent where I get to wear a cute apron and stir something with a big stick. Not only did it seem like an expensive & time consuming hobby, but a complex craft to dive into.

The best way to describe my experience would be to state that after the class concluded, I was so excited about home brewing I couldn’t sleep that night. I learned a (mash) ton about the beer making process and everything involved. Although our instructors are old hands at brewing, they made it seem easy, inexpensive & accessible to everyone. I would highly recommend this class to anyone interested in homebrewing or wanting to expand their knowledge of beer in general.

Kewt little guys!

Malt extract on a tooth pick, tastes like Raisin Bran

KCLS is still offering courses throughout May that you can attend so check it out. Registration is required, but the class itself is free. Where & When:

Sunday, May 8^th 2p – Des Moines Library   

Tuesday, May 10^th 7p – Fairwood Library

Thursday, May 12^th 7p – Fall City Library    

Thursday, May 7p – Shoreline Library

Monday, May 23^rd 7p – Kirkland Library

Besides the (relevant) info above, here is my personal account of being in class…

Other than recording every beer I drink & where I drink it, I don’t know why I bother taking notes for anything.  I look back and am realizing that it takes me longer to decipher what the eff I was talking about, than to actually scribe a blog. That is why Basil joined me (in all fairness, it was actually her idea and follow through in registration that got us there) for The Basics of Homebrewing class. Naturally we decided to sit front and center so that we could be annoying to everyone and not just entertaining to us. I’m sure I could look at her notes, start typing and BAM! I’d have a blog. Essentially, it takes a village of minions to raise a Pissed LiBEERian blog.

Here is my version of note taking during the 2 hr session, some stuff was written for Basil to read so we wouldn’t get in trouble for talking during class:

(Three hearts are doodled on top of page, obviously to add a little flair to my title.)

Bottle Capper = fascinating! We want one!!

@Basil-Multipurpose cave with kegzzzzz! Start drafting design soon...

Malt extract + hops + yeast + water = magic

Beer is fermented grain.

Ninkasi. Yeahyeahyeah, I already know about & want to ‘totally dominate’ her. Hahaha

Hop addition reasons:  @60m: Bitterness @20m: Flavor @2m: Aroma

Exploding bottles =’s Basil being in charge of all measuring.

Why is wort called wort?

@Basil-Dibs on adding hops 1^st

Liberate the Chlorine!

Louis Pasteur was the discoverer of yeast. Cuddle?

@Basil-Green pants guy has a bottle opener ring on his right hand. Epic. If MGD asked for my hand in matrimonial blissitude, do you think he’d hook me up with one of those?

There’s an app for that.

I thought I was being way studious at the time, but that’s the gist of what I have to go on people. I’m now slightly recalling the debate I got into with MGD during Belgianfest. We use a rating system of 1 thru 3 at events, marking everything we drink in the brochure for future reference. Well that’s a little restricting, no? I gave one beer a rating of 2.637, which did not fly in the world of MGD. His reason: “When you finally get around to writing this blog a few months later, how will you remember what you even meant by that?”

According to my notes, I want to give Louis Pasteur a cuddle. I have no idea why. Point taken.

I'll try to make (or at least record) some sense in the future. Until then, any way you slice it this was a fantastic class and it taught me mucho mucho a buncho about cerveza. 5 stars. Gold ones.

working up to teacher's pet,

the pissed liBEERian

Mike, myself and Dan, post class photo op

Photography work by Basil