Globex Corporation Newsletter

You have to love, I mean truly love beer to make your own beer. At this moment, I am brewing a batch of Belgian Triple. I started that right after bottling 5 gallons of the beer formerly known as Red Ass Ale. I'm hot and sweaty from the boiling that is going on in the cafeteria of the Worldwide Headquarters of The Globex Corporation. Said abode will smell of hops and grain for a number of days even though I'll take all of the trash outside as soon as possible. I'm beat from being hunched over, filling bottles and mini-kegs full of finished beer. I have dish pan hand from all of the dishes that I've done, and have a bunch more dishes to do.

You have to really love beer to make your own beer. Thankfully I do. I love beer. I've found very few things in my life that I'm willing to work this hard for. I've certainly never worked this hard in my chosen profession. I think it shows that I never worked this hard on music. Graphics just sort of came to me, it's more like playing a video game than actual work.

Brewing is work. It's hard work and as bottling day approaches I just dread it. That's the worst part, of course, putting 5 gallons of beer into about 50 12oz. bottles (don't do the math, I'm sure it doesn't work out exactly, there's always a little bit of waste). You don't just have to fill those bottles, but you have to sanitize them first. You have to put Dr. Nowell's marvelous invention, the crown cap, onto each bottle and work a device that seals each bottle individually.

I understand why big breweries gained popularity. Brewing is hard work, but more sales means you can buy better, faster equipment, hire more laborers, let each laborer do one repetetive task and do it perfectly.

Brewing thousands of barrels of beer is more efficient than brewing batches 5 gallons at a time. In an uncontrolled environment like the average kitchen, the results of small batch brewing aren't nearly as consistent as they are at that big Budweiser plant down the road just outside of Denver.

But I love beer, and pressed for an answer, I will tell you that I love brewing my own beer. It's probably no cheper for me to brew 5 gallons of beer than it would be for me to buy 5 gallons of beer. That doesn't include my time. The quality of my beer is probably a little higher than most beers, my beer is fresher than anything I'll buy at that really great liquor store on South Greely Highway and that does make a difference.

I practice what is known as extract brewing. No, it isn't simply pouring beer extract into water and letting it sit for a while. Extract refers to malt extract, the sugar that results from heating malted barley to a particular temperature, converting carbohydrates to sugar. If I weren't doing extract brewing, I would be doing what is known as all-grain brewing. And make no mistake, even though it's much more time consuming, even though it requires more equipment and can really only safely be done outdoor or in a really special kitchen, I would do it if I had the space and the room to store the equipment.

What I do is time consuming enough. I like what I get out of it though, and I don't just mean the beer. For me, it's about satisfaction. I made this. It tastes good. It has the desired effect when I drink it.

I could eat all my meals in fast food restaurants, I could drink nothing but Coors, I could only listen to music on purchased CD's. I could do all of those things and my life would be fine. Doing each of those things myself let's me know how difficult cooking or brewing or making music can be. I have more appreciation for real professionals, I hopefully won't be so quick to criticize. If I do criticize, it will be with a small understanding of what each of those crafts take to do and do well.

BOJ