The Overbrook Brewery

Home brewing is by far the hobby that occupies the most of my free time these days. Besides the fact that cheap GOOD beer is the net result, it's just really interesting to me. It's a combination of science (biology and chemistry), culinary arts, and engineering. I also like the fact that, although the home brewing culture is gaining ground, it's still viewed by most as a mystical, shady activity. I still say my neighbors are convinced I'm running meth lab or moon -shining. Did you know that the vast majority of the 1500 commercial breweries operating in the U.S. were founded by home brewers eager to take the next step?

I'm an active member of a local home brewing club call "The WHALES". Some of the stuff we do is documented in my Brewing Video and Brew Events pages.

I'm also an active participant of Home Brew Talk which is also an AHA sanctioned brew club albeit "virtual" in nature. I also participate at Brewboard but not as much. My handle on both sites is Bobby_M.

My Intro to Brewing

I'm pretty sure my interest was piqued sometime when in 2005 when I stumbled upon a home brewing website somewhere. It never really went anywhere, but I then had the idea that it was possible and being done at least by a select few diehards. I mentioned it Susan a few times and being the awesome wife, she bought me a beginners brewing kit similar to the the one pictured on the right. It wasn't exactly Mr. Beer, but something similar. Just like all department store style kits, it took a LOT of shortcuts in process, equipment and ingredients, but I was grateful nonetheless. The beer really didn't taste good and I don't recommend getting your start this way. After doing a bit of reading online in various forums and websites (don't worry, I'll publish some great links at the bottom of this page), I started upgrading to do it right. The great thing about brewing is that you can keep it simple or go high tech and both methods can produce completely satisfying beer. A basic bare-minimum equipment kit will run about $100 (add another $25 if you don't already have a 20qt or larger pot). From there, each 5-gallon batch (two cases of 12oz bottles) will cost about $20-30 in ingredients.

By the summer of 2006, I was in full production mode amassing cases of home brew. In early 2007 I converted to the all-grain process just like all the big boys do it and even started kegging so I can have my own brew on draft.

What's New?

I added this section to keep you informed of date related brewing activities and any significant changes to the brewing section of the website so that you don't have to browse everything for new content. It might turn into a "blog" if I'm not careful.

07/23/2008 07:50 AM - I just updated the brewing reference page to include some info on different methods of force carbing in kegs. It's a copy of what I recently posted over at homebrewtalk in response to a lot of questions I've been seeing.