Brewing By Numbers

I am far from the artist in my family. I cannot draw without a T square and a ruler. I am not know for spontaneously coming up with arts & crafts projects around the house. You will not find me anywhere near paint that isn't applied to walls with rollers.

That said, there are two places where I have found abundant creativity in my life. 

The first is in the kitchen. My parents weren't great chefs; my father can barely make breakfast before he taps out and my mother is well known for overcooking and underseasoning. So it's no surprise that I took to cooking because to get the food you want, sometimes you have to make it yourself. 

For many years I was tied to recipes. When I was in graduate school I was spending too much money eating delivery food, so I taught myself how to make Pad Thai. When I realized I was eating Indian food at least once a week I taught myself to make Chicken Tikka Masala and now my kids beg for it. I will also fully admit that I am still tied to recipes for baking; that is a science I may never master.

The same is true for my brewing journey. I started making recipes I was directly given (Brewing 101 anyone?), and slowly dipped my toes into clone recipes. SMaSH beers really made me feel like I could write my own complex recipes. Now I just sit down with Beersmith and figure out something new and original.

The other creative hobby I have is graphic design. I call it a hobby because I am far from professional level at it, and I still enjoy it so it doesn't feel like a job. Sure, my designs are rather basic, but I find it a fun problem to try and represent the title of a beer recipe graphically and have it be interesting enough for you to want to look at.

We've got eight new recipes up on the site now. These were all penned by Rob because he'd already had them written. Why reinvent wheels that already spin? We'll come up with more recipes in the coming weeks and months. Some will be newly written, some will come out of our personal beer recipe books. Rob and I are going to try and keep at least one recipe made in the shop at all times, so if you're in the store (and you're over 21 because we're going to check!), maybe you'll take a small sample.

We are diligently working on arranging some how to brew classes, so stay tuned for news about that in the new year. I think it's going to be a very interesting demonstration on how good - and fun - homebrewing can be.

- Matt