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…
- Get all your ingredients together.
- Fill pots with the proper amount of water.
- Have a parent help you put the pots on the stove and heat up the water.
- Taste grain and put in grain bag to add to pot.
- Remove grain bag and have parent help to get water boiling.
- Add 60 minute hops to boiling pot.
- Have a 45 minute dance party.
- Add malt extract with 15 minutes left and add some hops. Of course you can lick the inside of the container!
- Add more hops…and more hops…and more hops.
- Chill wort – make sure to get a good whirlpool going.
- Put chilled wort into fermentor and add yeast.
- 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…