Disclaimer: We did not receive any compensation or benefits from any of the businesses mentioned in this post.

As you may have figured out by now, Bernie and I love adult beverages, which obviously includes beer. Anytime we travel we try to hit the local breweries so we can expand our beer horizons and discover new brews unavailable back in Tennessee. We have had the pleasure of traveling over the years and finding some really great places that we will be sharing with you from time to time. In fact, check out our Facebook post from Sunday, December 1, 2019 where we recommended several of our favorite breweries around the country as great Christmas gifts.

One of our newest adventures this year is brewing our own beer. Now the funny part is that I bought Bernie a homebrew kit 10 years ago for his birthday. Unfortunately, as many of you can relate, life happens and there’s a time for everything. Well, 10 years later we decided it was the perfect time to start brewing beer.

Class is in Session

After stopping by Beer Market and Beer Garden for the first time one day, we met Eric and found out that he teaches classes on brewing beer. So, for Father’s Day I bought Bernie and I tickets for the next class, which was scheduled in June. We knew that we could read all the books and watch all the videos, but a live class made more sense for us. Anyone who knows me understands how much of a nerd I am when it comes to things like this so yes, I had a notebook and took a ton of notes during the class.

The class was extremely helpful and informational. Many times, when people know what they are doing like brew masters they tend to talk over people’s heads when trying to explain their art. However, that was not the case here. Eric does a great job explaining things in simple terms and answering questions along the way.

Eric is extremely passionate about brewing beer and it shows in his beer. In fact, Eric is so good at brewing beer that he even got me to like IPA’s, which I thought was impossible.

Our First Beer

So, after taking the class, discussing our options, and sampling a lot of beer, we decided to brew our first beer during the 4^th of July weekend. I mean what is more American than brewing beer?! We decided that our first beer would be an Irish Stout, since that’s the beer that originally came with the kit and yes, it was still good. The only thing we bought by recommendation from Eric was the yeast, since it more than likely had died long ago.

So 4^th of July came and we brewed our first beer. After three (3) weeks we tried our first beer. It was amazing and only got better as it sat not being drank. Basically five (5) gallons of beer takes a while to drink especially when you do not have a kegerator to help the process and when you’re not home very much to really enjoy the beer. To be perfectly honest, I refused to drink the beer if Bernie wasn’t around and, at the time, we were both traveling so we only drank our beer when we were together.

The best part about this beer was that it was not a typical Iris Stout as it was not overly sweet but had dry chocolate notes with a subtle hint of hops on the backside.

One is Good but Two is Even Better

Our first beer was such a success that we couldn’t wait to brew our next beer. Beer two (2) would be brewed during Labor Day weekend. Are you starting to see a pattern? Again, after some discussions with Eric, some beer tasting, and some discussions with each other, we decided that our second beer would be a Kolsch. It did not disappoint. It was so delicious and complex. The one thing we wanted was complexity in our beer and this had everything we wanted. A little hoppy with some citrus flavor and that crisp taste you expect with a Kolsch.

Beer Three will be Thrice as Nice

We haven’t started planning our third beer just yet, but I expect it will happen around Christmas or New Year’s. One thing you may have realized about Bernie and I is that there are very few things that we don’t do together.  However, what you may not realize is that we are very competitive and if there is a way for us to compete against each other we do. We have already started to think about brewing our own individual beers in the future to see who can brew a better beer. As with any competition between us there is always a wager that must be paid. Typically for us it involves a nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Regardless what this wager winds up being you will be one of the first to hear about the competition on our blog so make sure to stay tuned for future posts.