The Humble Gourmand

The time has come for me to explain the root of my passion for beer. I’ve been brewing for years now — partly because you can buy ingredients before you can buy beer and partly because I thought it would impress girls — and have made beers both good and not-so-good. The process is not too complex: make a tea from toasted barley, add a syrup of malted barley, boil, add hops, add yeast, ferment, bottle, and wait.

It is a nerdy hobby, in my esteem, but has picked up in popularity in recent years, as our wikiculture has made almost everyone a Do-It-Yourself convert. I’ve taught 10 people how to brew and was even commissioned by a friend to brew a batch of birthday beer for his girlfriend (I got a case of beer out of it and he got … well, we can all guess what he got).

My most recent brew was a nod to the current tendency of American brewers to go bigger and bitterer with a double India Pale Ale — more alcohol, more hops, and more flavor. It’s been in the bottle for a month now and if I do say so myself is a well-balanced version of this oftentimes over-the-top beer: caramel notes with a solid floral backbone, but not too bitter. With the recent shortage and high demand for hops, the price of $65 for the batch was a bit steep, but worth it for one final salute to hops until the price comes down again.

My next batch, due in a month or so, will be a Gruit ale. Never heard of it? That’s probably because I’m one of the nerdier homebrewers out there, seeking out the most esoteric of recipes in order to have the most arcane brew on the block. Gruit is a style from the Middle Ages utilizing herbs instead of hops, before the latter became standard as a preservative and flavor enhancer. Because of the current, ludicrous price for hops and the relatively low demand for mugwort, yarrow root, and wormwood, I decided to make the ancient ale. Wish me luck, though I don’t think I’ll ever know if it’s accurate, considering the last Gruit-brewing monk probably died 400 years ago….