August 31

The Homebrew Experience

Comments 5

Our first batch; a nut brown ale

Our first batch; a nut brown ale

If you've read this blog for any amount of time it's probably become evident that I:

- Like beer. A lot.

- Am always looking for a way to include "bad" things like beer drinking and cigar smoking into my healthy lifestyle

- Act like an idiot on camera

A few months ago my friends and I were sitting around on plush couches and sipping on microbrews when we joked about brewing our own beer. Five minutes later I was on my Mac ordering a full kit. Two weeks later we brewed our first batch, a Nut Brown ale that actually turned out tasting like beer. A good start.

Recently we tried our hand at a second batch, a clone of the infamous Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. And we decided to film it.

In my book Built for Show, I talked about implementing the "5 Drink Rule". The basic premise is that you can still enjoy yourself, have some beer (or whiskey or whatever), and still maintain a great-looking body if you only allow yourself five drinks per week. You can either split it up and have a drink with dinner, or add them all up in one night. Doesn't really matter how you do it as long as you don't go over the five per week limit.

It's a rule I personally follow and has been a lot more fun then completely swearing off alcohol (like I first did when I started working out seriously).

Give it a try. And if you're feeling frisky, order yourself up a homebrew kit and have some fun experimenting.



(Note: We've still got a few more weeks of fermentation and bottling and all that non-drinking stuff, but you better believe we'll film all of that too.)

Posted Aug 31, 2009 by .
This entry is filed under brewing beer, debauchery, and beer.
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Comments for This Entry

GravatarJ.C.02:25PM on August 31, 2009

Hahaha awesome... I always wanted to try that, but nonetheless have just opted to buy my beer. Much like you Nate, I love good beer. Alas my passion since I was 12 has been wine. When I was 17, and all the way till I turned 21, I used to convince waiters, waitresses and bartenders that I was 21 with my knowledge on the grand crus of Burgundy and the differences in soil within the Cote D'Or. Yes I was a wine snob at the ripe young age of 17. The relevance to this post about brewing your own beer, absolutely nothing. It does hold reference to the fact that the 5 drink a week rule is flawed, and I usually drink 5 bottles of wine a week (by myself). When I get through this part of my life and graduate college I want to be a Master Sommelier or Wine Director for a big restaurant group. I justify my healthy lifestyle of wine consumption every time I pour a new bottle by reciting the Grand Crus of Burgundy and the differences in the right and left banks of Bordeaux with emphasis on other regions as well. It's reading, reciting and solidifying knowledge. In my book that's education... right?

GravatarDave V05:29PM on August 31, 2009

was that a glass carboy? I have the same wort chiller but didn't use it though yet. Good luck

GravatarDean07:15AM on September 05, 2009

I have a Mr. Beer Kit and it's GREAT. Fun to do and the beer taste wonderful. MANY options with what kind you want to make. Great stuff.

Gravatarlewis07:01AM on September 06, 2009

hmmmmm wonder if I should put this on my own fitness blog and see what my guests have to say Nate.

I bet the majority would say it's just so much easier to go to the corner store and buy a 6 pack lol.

Now thats the easy way to get a sic pack :)

Keep up the great video posts . So nice to see this type of blogging.

Lewis

Gravatargreg09:51AM on October 01, 2009

god i love good beer.

a wise man once said:
"give a man a beer and he will waste an hour.
Teach a man to brew and he will waste a lifetime."

I have been brewing on and off for years. Every once and a while I will get the bug again and will have 3 carboys fermenting multiple styles of beer in my living room.

I also have pretty much stuck to the 5 per week method.sometimes a little over, sometimes a little under and it works. Most of the people i know that are my age (mid 40s) have a good beer gut going, even sadder is that most people i know that are younger, have the same.


-Greg

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