The family that brews together…

No matter how you cut it, making beer takes time. There’s the recipe formulation, brew day preparation, brewing, clean-up, fermentation, and bottling/kegging – all before you get to the drinking part. I remember the days when I could take a full day and brew up two batches, which usually involved inviting a couple of buddies over, smoking some bbq, and throwing back a few beers. With two small kids, brewing a batch of beer these days usually requires scheduling in advance. Sometimes I like to throw caution to the wind, grab some malt extract and let the 4 year old brewmaster go to town.

Here in the Worts, we’re all about family inclusion, so what follows is a guide to brewing for 4 year olds…

1. Get all your ingredients together.
   
2. Fill pots with the proper amount of water.
   
3. Have a parent help you put the pots on the stove and heat up the water.
   
4. Taste grain and put in grain bag to add to pot.
   
5. Remove grain bag and have parent help to get water boiling.
   
6. Add 60 minute hops to boiling pot.
   
7. Have a 45 minute dance party.
   
8. Add malt extract with 15 minutes left and add some hops. Of course you can lick the inside of the container!
   
9. Add more hops…and more hops…and more hops.
   
10. Chill wort – make sure to get a good whirlpool going.
    
11. Put chilled wort into fermentor and add yeast.
    
12. You’re all done, now go take a nap!

And remember, a 4 year olds batch of homebrew is better than that batch you never brewed…