Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Was reading an article about the decline in homebrewing in America and it made me wonder. Why do you homebrew? What made you get in to this hobby?

I started honebrewing in 2002 with Larry Papkin who had moved here from California. I started simply because beers I liked from other parts of the country I visited were not available in Cedar Rapids. I won awards right out if the gate and was hooked. I still brew because I really like the beer I make.

I started brewing back in 2001 because I was too poor to buy beer. That quickly evolved into wanting better beer than I could get locally. These days I brew because I like the challenge and exploring new concepts. Also, there are a couple styles that I like my version of better than anything I can buy commercially.

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As many of you know, I started brewing in 2010. That was a bit before the big beer and brewery explosion started in Iowa. So I wanted to learn about more styles and make beers that were hard to find, such as bigger beers.

Now I brew for different reasons. I still like to make less common styles. But it's really the craft I enjoy. I especially like trying to perfect a recipe. I like the challenge of pulling together a lot of details to get it right.

But another big part for me is the social experience of our club. I enjoy talking about a hobby we all related to. I like pouring my creations at events and hearing people's opinions. I'm fairly certain I would have grown bored a long time ago without these shared experiences. I feel challenged to keep getting better and exploring new ideas.

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I started brewing in 2013, wife and i went to St. Louis for our honeymoon and visited ther Budweiser plant for a tour, i was so intrigued with the process. She later bought be a northern brewer equipment/brewing kit in a box.

I love to cook and tinker with things and a challenge so this hobby fit perfectly with all of my interests. I enjoy making "my beer", beer that fits my tastes buds. I like to share what i create whether with the club or friends. I like being involved with the club, learning new processes and styles of beer i never would of tried.

When I was growing up, my Dad made homebrew periodically. It was awful - and at the time, illegal. So, it was kinda crazy that I ever started brewing myself, given how bad I thought homebrew was. However, I brewed my first batch of beer back in 1980 when I was living in CA. I saw a full page ad in the Sunday Parade magazine for a kit to make your own beer. My roommates and I said what the hell, and plunked down the whopping $25 for the kit. Our first batch was mediocre at best, (much better than Dad's swill) but we thought with practice we could do better. We made a few more batches, which were progressively better, and then we lost interest for other things (girlfriends). I started back up shortly after moving to IA in '82, but it was a pain because the closest store was in Ames (way before online shopping folks!). Almost quit when a guy opened up a shop in Corralville. I brewed for a while longer until he closed up his shop and then quit myself. I brewed randomly after that, usually raffling off a "Make Your Own Beer," session for a couple of charity events. What really got me active again was running into a ragtag bunch of guys at the Iowa Festival of Beers down in Amana in 2007 - Yes, the Beer Nuts! Went to my first club meeting that October at Cedar Brewing and have been in the Club ever since. Like Randy, I enjoy the social aspect of the Club and the events that we do. I like the challenges of the club competitions to push me to try different styles and ingredients. Like I say, I like to brew the weird shit!

btw - I still have that original brewing bucket, in the original box, in my brewroom.

A guy handed me a glass of blueberry mead in spring 2003.

I took a sip and thought "damn, just what I needed -- another expensive hobby".

wyzzyrdd wrote:A guy handed me a glass of blueberry mead in spring 2003.

I took a sip and thought "damn, just what I needed -- another expensive hobby".

Have you gotten even yet?

I brewed my first couple beers in college with a buddy because it sounded like fun and I liked beer so what the hell, why not? There was also the thought of, wow you can make 2 cases of beer for like 30 bucks! (Which was of course delusional especially considering we were buying plenty of cases of Leinie’s longnecks for 10 bucks a case at the time) I didn’t really know what good beer was at the time and there certainly wasn’t much available in Iowa then(we’re talking 1997ish). Fast forward to 2005 and I moved to Portland and quickly discovered real beer. I brewed my first all grain batch a few years later and never looked back, it was a Rogue Brutal Bitter clone recipe and actually turned out really good. I guess being a chef, I just really love the craft of making stuff and the club has inspired me to keep learning and getting better. I’m finally loving the beer I’m making and am slowly working on upgrading my system to a point where it doesn’t frustrate me and make me hate the thing I’m supposed to love doing!


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