The Beery Beginning

Greetings fellow brewers and beer drinkers! My name is Lauren and I am your typical Salt Lake City transplant. I'm originally from Chicago, Illinois but am a current student at the University of Utah studying Mass Communications. I am also the Office Manager at a small non-profit micofinance company. In my spare time I enjoy running, hiking, cooking, and you guessed it, drinking a good beer! Hailing from the Midwest has spoiled me in terms of the availability of quality brew. My personal favorites include 312 (Goose Island) and Summer Shandy (Leinenkuegal) both of which are not available in Utah. When I expressed my frustration and disappointment in Utah's liquor laws and product availability to my boyfriend Marc, he knew there was only one thing we could do... Make our own!

Source



After a lot of googling and perusing beer forums, he discovered there were only two places to buy home brew kits in Salt Lake City. The Beer Nut and Art's were both pretty close and had what we would need. We decided to try Art's first as his prices seemed a little more reasonable and the reviews raved about what an interesting character this Art guy was... We should have known we were in for a trip when we pulled up in front of a run-down home guarded by two angry pit bulls. Turns out Art was eclectic-yes, but also extremely knowledgeable when it came to home brewing and wine making. Marc bought only what was necessary to make a one gallon tester batch.

Behold! The "Light American Pale Ale":

See that cork? That blew off more than once! Scared the crap out of me!

I'm not going to lie and say this was the most delicious beer we had ever consumed, but we were definitely on to something! After a little more research and chatting with fellow brewers on HomeBrewTalk we gained a lot of inisght on what it took to make a really delicious batch of home brew.

I'm sure some of you have a lot of questions when it comes to the process of fermentation, supplies needed, and how YOU can get started in home brewing. I had the pleasure of interviewing Dave Watson, an employee at The Beer Nut. Hopefully he has some answers for you! Please check back soon for his interview.

Cheers!