For the past couple years, since I graduated college, I feel that I've done very little outside of work. I like my job, so that's not a terrible as it might sound, but I work a lot of afternoon-to-night shifts at odd hours, so it makes it hard to get out and do a ton. Lately, especially, I feel like I've gotten into something of a rut where I get up late, play video games for an hour, go to work, come home, go to bed. Because of when my time off is (mornings until about 1 PM, most days), it's not really conducive to going out or seeing people. And I'm getting bored. And cranky.
OK, there's a good chance I was cranky before I got into this rut, but it certainly hasn't helped. So I've been casually looking around for something else fun to do that will get me off the couch a little bit and give me something new to look into. And hey, if I can share it with some like-minded friends and family, even better!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my girlfriend and I figured out awhile back that we transformed into beer snobs. The term isn't really fair, and doesn't completely fit, but it's the closest thing I can think of. We both like good beer. I can't drink a lot of the mass-produced domestic swill that most people my age down (Buds, Millers, Coors, etc). If you like them, there's nothing wrong with them, they're just not my cup of tea (or mug of beer, I guess). I've certainly had them, but after having the good stuff from Harpoon, Dogfish Head, Smuttynose and a number of other fantastic, smaller breweries, I can't imagine any reason to drink the other stuff other than price. And I'm talking dollar drafts. But again, to each his own.
Last month, as a fun weekend thang, the girl and I headed to Harpoon's Boston brewery for a tour and tasting. That was fun, and tasty, but the tour was not exactly in-depth. And I wanna know the in-depth stuff. It's a version of cooking where the chemistry really comes out in force, and if you can get an understanding of what you're doing, you can really tweak the final product in every possible way. It sounded like fun, and I realized shortly thereafter that I had (hopefully) found my new hobby.
I turn 25 next week, and I made the girl blissfully happy by actually telling her what I wanted for my birthday for once. All I wanted was the tools. And since the box was sitting rather conspicuously in the lobby of our building, I opened them up this morning. She wins!
So the brewing adventure begins likely the Monday after next, since I've still got a couple things I need to pick up, and next week is gonna be a busy one. This blog was created with the best possible intent: to document the process in whatever form it takes: successes, discoveries, failures and disasters. Expect pictures, videos and rants of all kinds. I'm looking forward to it.
