My brewing journey started in 2022, though I'd actually started researching the topic during COVID. After falling down countless YouTube rabbit holes, I was pretty knowledgeable on the subject before I ever brewed my first batch.
I've since added a dedicated brewing section to the site where I share recipes for beer, wine, and mead — complete with ingredients, step-by-step instructions, and notes from my own brewing experiences.
Learning From the Pros
I started watching YouTube videos to learn the basics. I call it YouTube Academy — because you can literally learn anything you want from YouTube, and brewing is no exception. Three channels became my go-to resources:
- Man Made Mead — The definitive guide to all things mead
- Doin' The Most — Creative recipes and experiments
- City Steading Brews — Practical brewing for urban dwellers
These creators made brewing approachable. They broke down complex processes into simple steps and showed that you didn't need a massive setup to make great beverages.
The Northern Brewer Starter Kit
Following their recommendations, I bought a 1-gallon mead kit from Northern Brewer. This seems to be the universal entry point for new brewers — and I suspect that's not accidental. Northern Brewer was heavily sponsoring content creators at the time, providing them with tools and ingredients for their videos. Smart marketing, and it definitely worked on me.
The kit arrived with everything I needed to make my first beer: Caribou Slobber, a brown ale extract kit. The beer came out decent, but it wasn't a good first brewing experience. It wasn't really an enjoyable brown ale — and I've enjoyed brown ales in the past.
My second kit was a 1-gallon elderberry mead kit. The mead came out nice, but I messed it up by over-sweetening when I back-sweetened it — the entire batch was ruined. After those experiences, I started thinking about expanding.
Moving to Beer
At this point in my life, I enjoyed drinking beer way more than wine, and mead was an entirely new category for me. I wanted to brew what I actually liked to drink. Beer felt like the logical next step — more complex recipes, more variables to control, and a much wider range of styles to explore.
When I started brewing beer, I turned to a new set of YouTube creators for knowledge:
- Adam Makes Beer
- Beer-N-BBQ by Larry
- Bitter Reality Brewing
- Cityscape Brewing
- Clawhammer Supply
- David Heath Homebrew
- Don Osborn
- Exit 12 Homebrew
- Hops & Gnarly
I also followed these creators who have since stopped making brewing content:
Leveling Up
My wonderful wife saw how much I was enjoying the hobby and surprised me with a serious upgrade — a 10 gallon electric brewing system from Clawhammer Supply. This was a massive step up from my 1-gallon stovetop setup. Digital temperature control, built-in pump, and enough capacity to brew real batches that would actually last more than a week.
It was exactly what I needed to take brewing from a fun experiment to a serious hobby.
The Bottling Problem
I was able to brew a batch of beer but had no easy way to store it when finished. I was having to bottle up around 48 bottles of beer after every batch — cleaning, sanitizing, filling, capping, and then finding space to store them all. It turned every brew day into a two-day affair with all the cleanup and bottling.
Bottling is something that I do not miss.
The Honda Dealership Connection
The real pivot point came unexpectedly. We went to our local Honda dealership to trade in our minivan — my wife was done being a soccer mom and wanted an SUV. We ended up driving home in a 2020 Honda Pilot, but that's not the real story here.
While we were there, I struck up a conversation with the sales manager. We got a bit off-topic from the vehicle, and I mentioned I was getting into home brewing. He was surprised — not at the fact that I was a home brewer, but rather that I brought up the topic at his workplace. As it turned out, he was selling a bunch of brewing equipment because he'd lost time for the hobby.
"What do you have?" I asked.
He had a full keezer with kegs, taps, CO₂ tank, regulator — everything I needed to have beer on tap in my kitchen. He also had a beer gun for bottle filling, two large 5-gallon plastic fermenters, and other odds and ends for brewing.
I asked how much he wanted for it. When he said approximately $1,000, I quickly stated that I couldn't take that on along with the vehicle. But looking back, it was well worth what he was asking — a complete setup like that would have cost significantly more buying everything new.
That's when my wife injected herself into the conversation.
"No, you have to buy this," she said firmly. "This is something you have wanted for a while, and opportunities like this do not come up that often."
She was right, of course. I'd been dreaming about having beer on tap at home since I started brewing, but I never thought I'd find a complete setup — especially not from a random conversation at a car dealership.
In the end, we walked out with the vehicle along with a date to pick up the brewing equipment.
What I've Brewed
Over the years I've brewed a few different styles of beer. I started off using an all-grain kit from Northern Brewer but found that shipping delays caused me some issues. Something was happening at Northern Brewer that was causing long delays — I'm not sure what was going on behind the scenes, but waiting weeks for ingredients got frustrating fast.
I ended up switching suppliers shortly after that experience. I started using More Beer, which has never given me any issues over the years. Reliable shipping, good quality ingredients, and their customer service has been solid.
I've made an IPA, a Cream Ale, and a Summer Shandy — but I tend to stick to what I like to brew. Over the years that's been cream ales. They're crisp, clean, refreshing, and a crowd-pleaser when I have friends over. Not too hoppy, not too heavy — just an easy-drinking beer that works year-round.
I'm also planning to try making my own hard seltzer — it's a simple recipe of just corn sugar, water, yeast, and flavoring.
Full Circle
More recently I've had limited time to brew beer. Maybe this time limitation has something to do with it, but I've started making more wine and meads again.
I currently have a Cherry Mead in primary fermentation — a sweet mead with whole frozen cherries added in both primary and secondary for depth of flavor and that beautiful red color.
It's funny how things come full circle. I started with mead, moved to beer when I had the time and equipment, and now find myself back to mead as life gets busier. Different phases, different beverages, same satisfying hobby.
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