An Idea Is Born

Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew.

It's been a long, strange trip to get to the point where I'm sitting here writing this first blog post. I am having a homebrew (a festbier I made with lutra kveik) and staring down the enormous task of beginning both a business and this post.

For years my father's favorite beer was Genessee Cream Ale. It was unobtainable in our home state of Virginia, so he got friends to import it. I remember when he was having trouble sourcing his Genny creamers and decided he could make it himself. It turns out my father is a lot of things but a brewer he is not.

Years later a former roommate of mine had the brilliant idea of attempting to make imperial stouts (with excessive amounts of vanilla if memory serves) on our stovetop one gallon at a time. For two twenty-somethings that had no idea what they were doing, no concept of sanitation, and made it up as they were going along... we did ok. We didn't make ourselves sick, which under the circumstances I suppose is the biggest win. 

It wasn't until I was established here in Brooklyn, married with one child bounding about the house, that I once again thought about homebrewing. I took a class, found a bunch of used equipment on Park Slope Parents, and made a drinkable extra special bitter. I kept at brewing but slowly; a batch here and there as I could find the time, all the while my wife telling me that I should find a job in the beer world somehow. I thought about it, and then never found the right opportunity.

I joined the Brewminaries during the pandemic because I heard their name over and over at the awards for a Homebrew Alley. Without them I know I wouldn't be writing this because I would never have met Rob. Rob was one of the first Brewmies I met because I bought an immersion chiller from him. He totally got me because even though I don't remember what I paid him for it, the chiller only half-ass chills fermenting wort so the price was too much. Don't tell him I told you.

Then as you are all well aware, our local homeberewing shop here in New York suddenly announced they were closing. Surprised to say the least, I heard the news whilst sitting on a playground bench watching my kids tire themselves out. I immediately texted my wife: "we should buy that." Turns out buying that wasn't in the cards, but in working through that possibility I reached out to Rob with the idea of partnering up. Why couldn't we open our own shop? Obviously there's a market in the Five Boroughs for home brewing supplies, so why not fill that hole in the market?

So here I am trying to relax. Trying to not worry. Having a homebrew and getting excited to open Forever Homebrewing. It feels like it's taking forever but we'll be open before you know it.

Oh, and I almost forgot: I wanted to share with you how we came up with the name. A few paragraphs back when I was making those imperial stouts we all thought craft beer was going to be a fad, but that was almost twenty years ago. The concept of the Forever name comes from the idea that good things aren't a fad, they're Forever.

Hope to see you all soon! #HomebrewingIsForever

- Matt