I have been brewing beer since about 2005. It started after a friend offered me his basic home brewing setup and I thought, 'Why not?' I love learning new things, have a certain do-it-yourself attitude, and love beer. Also, a couple years before my brother had earned his Master's degree in Oenology and was working at Provenance Vineyards in the Napa Valley, so alcohol making seems to run in the family. From 2005 - 2006 I brewed maybe half a dozen batches, focusing mostly on Belgian style ales (dubbels, tripels, wheats, etc). Then, disaster struck: Three batches in a row ended tasting extremely foul. The string of failures discouraged me and the brewing equipment languished in the garage for several years (I later learned that I had been using my wort-chiller incorrectly and bacteria had ruined the beer)
In 2009, a couple things happened that got me back into brewing. First, I received encouragement from my equally beer-loving fiancée (girlfriend at the time), Cate (by "encouragement" I mean "a mandate") Second, I had an audience in the form of Christian and Bree Olivari, a couple we befriended in Redondo Beach. The Olivari's share many of our interests in food, wine, the outdoors, lazy weekend evenings eating food and lounging outdoors, and (of course) beer.
One afternoon I invited Christian over to help me brew . The chef in him was instantly intrigued and he helped me prepare my first batch in nearly three years. It was an unremarkable Amber ale, but of good quality and worth drinking. Christian also helped me build a kegarator, the third step in the lead-up to The Year of the Home Brew. For anyone who has brewed their own beer, bottling is an incredibly time-consuming pain in the ass. Kegging, on the other hand, is a breeze and significantly lowers the overall amount of work required for home brewing. It also makes for better tasting beer.
The final step began sometime in December 2009 when after a night of revelry (and by "revelry" I mean "booze and sex") Bree and Christian got pregnant with their first child, Miles Matis Olivari. Over the summer in 2010, I struggled with what to get them as a baby gift. I could not decide until I asked myself this question: After breast milk and parents' love, what does a newborn need most? The answer: Beer. More precisely, knock-you-on-your-ass high-alcohol Belgian beer. This is not because the newborn actually needs the beer, but rather because the new parents need the beer. The beer, I reasoned, would put Bree and Christian in a better mood, thereby improving the quality of their love. I know, my narcissism knows no bounds.
So I researched a recipe, ordered ingredients, and brewed up a batch of Belgian Golden Ale. After primary fermentation I racked the beer into a 5-gallon, glass carboy and waited. On August 24, 2010, Miles was born. And still, I waited. It was not until the middle of November, nearly four months after brewing, that I finally gathered my bottles, cleaners, sanitizers, and bottling-wand and bottled Mile's Golden Belgian Ale.
Two-weeks later I opened the first bottle. It took half the glass for it to really set in that this beer was amazing. It had a deep golden color, was crystal clear, and wonderful flavor. Everyone who tried it agreed. Mile's Golden Belgian Ale reminded me of what I could accomplish brewing my own beer. And so I vowed that for all of 2011 I would not buy any beer and make it The Year of the Home Brew.
