The Pride of Sharing

I enjoy cooking. I enjoy making beer. They are both similar in process and creativity. But they are similar in another way as well...

If I am alone, I am unlikely to cook anything fancy. In fact, a sandwich or something simple and utilitarian is my most likely "dining alone" meal. Why? I'm probably not worth the effort. Seriously, for me a big part of the reward of cooking a good meal is the enjoyment of those who are eating it. I love it when people like my cooking. It makes me feel good. Unfortunately, a longer commute has relegated me to mostly weekend cooking and an occasional slow cooker meal during the week...

Making beer provides me with a similar experience (although I have absolutely no problem enjoying beer alone!). I love to share and talk about beer - it is fun and enjoyable. But it is even more rewarding when it is beer that I made.

It is funny, but the same people who have grown to expect great cooking from me are still surprised by my homebrew. I think that beer is one of those mass-produced commodities from which most Americans have become detached in terms of production. Like french fries - my mom used to make homemade french fries, but now people are shocked and amazed if you made them from scratch. Pretty soon, bread will be the same way.

With beer, there is some notion of magic or mystery since most people don't understand how it is made. I think the collapse and consolidation of the brewing industry in the latter part of the 20th century helped foster this notion. Without local small breweries, beer was produced off on the outskirts of society, arriving magically on the shelves of grocery store coolers. The brewing process was lost in the folds of imagination.

I think that is changing, given the number of local breweries springing up around the country. In Kitsap County alone (a rural/suburban county on the western shores of Puget Sound, a ferry ride away from Seattle), we now have at least five craft brewers - and three of them opened within the last two years. So, given that people (in places like Western Washington, Oregon, and California at least) have access to fresh, local beer, why are folks still surprised by homebrew?

I don't think they are surprised by the variety, freshness or quality anymore. I think they are still surprised because they don't understand the process. I love it when the conversation turns from "Really - you made this?" to "What kinds of beer do you make?" then finally to "How do you make it?". That's the money question. Demystifying the process.

I am fortunate, because nobody has begun to take my homebrew for granted the way they do my cooking.

Brewing is rewarding for me, of course. I mean, I get to make whatever kind of beer I want. I control the process from ingredients and recipe, all the way to the finished product. And it is beer - five gallons at a time! But as rewarding as it is for me myself, it is all the more rewarding when shared with friends.