Not to make a big deal out of it, but when I started to brew we had to crush our malt with big flat rocks, climbing splintery telephone poles in our skivvies to harvest brown, pea-sized hops that reeked of creosote. The only reliable guidebook was written in ancient Armenian and was missing more than a few pages. Malt extract had to be chipped off a giant block with an adze.
If you stay within the guidelines here, your beer will turn out lighter or darker, more or less bitter, but it is guaranteed to be wonderfully drinkable.
(Kinsley Dey)
Things are better now. Everything one needs to brew great beer is available in abundance. Cartloads of malt from all corners of the brewing world await your recipe. Hops appear in profuse, resiny bounty. Yeast, once by far the weakest link in the homebrew chain, may be had in dozens of pedigreed strains, in pitchable quantities freshness dated for your brewing pleasure. Many of the thorny technical issues have been wrestled to the mat. Information flows in beery rivers. Clubs abound.
So what are you waiting for?
I hear a lot of beer enthusiasts say “I’ve been thinking about brewing.” You procrastinators know who you are. You’re out of excuses.
