Brewing and Burning
Last Saturday, I brewed my "Imperial Claus" beer. Brewing beer is in my Germanic DNA. My Grandfather helped design Coors, Budweiser, Hamms, and other breweries. We still have many of his architectural drawings. The Imperial Claus--I have a knack for naming beers--is an Imperial IPA. High ABV, high hoppy beer. I threw in a good amount of my homegrown hops into the brewpot in addition to the 3 hop pouches that came with the kit. The beer has an eerie green glow. Think Naughty & Nice, Santa with a Snape-like edge. I am usually not super-technical but when I brew, I ramp up whatever lab and quantitative skills I possess and muster my inner-scientist. Precision and cleanliness are critical in home-brewing. And since I am also cheap, nothing is worse than brewing a botched batch of beer. It is only at the end of the bottling process that one realizes that the kit was compromised along the way. After all of that work and fifty bucks, just to have a ruined run of beer. I ...