Hello and Welcome to The Kaizen Projekt
I am the Kaizen Man
I am very excited about today's episode, we're
going to learn the ABC's of craft brewing.
And how you can brew delicious beer right
at home.
Microbrews have been all the rage for the
past few years and they've been popping up
everywhere. And if you've ever thought of
brewing your own beer at home, perhaps giving
it to the people that you love, then this
video is for you.
Today we're talking to Colin Walker who is
the Walter White of home brewing. This guy
is a master of his craft, he's taught hundreds
of bartenders all across Toronto their craft,
he's worked in some of the highest-end cocktail
bars, opened some of the best restaurants
in the city. This guy has really done it all.
And I'm so excited to have him on today's
episode so he can show us what he knows and
give us the basics of home brewing right at
home.
So without further ado, let's get right into
it.
Starting right from the beginning, what first
drew you to home brewing - how did you first
get started.
Actually it was my roommate who pitched it
to me, came to me one day asked about starting
to brew some beer. Something that he had tried
back out in Vancouver, while he was living
out there with a former roommate, and decided
that he wanted to give it a shot again.
Naturally me being me, very hands on, so we
tried it out a couple of times, it wasn't
really my roommate's thing he decided, kind
of fell of a little bit, so I picked up the
flag and just ran with it.
If you were teaching someone completely new
to Home brewing what are the three basic things
you would focus on?
Three basic things - Number 1, hands down
cleanliness. I've got a bottle of bleach and
a bottle of sanitizer solution with me at
all times while I'm brewing. It's just one
of those safety precautions where if a batch
of beer, because beer can go wrong very easily.
You can get infections in beer, it may not
ferment properly, and then you don't get a
good quality product at the end of it. One
of the simplest ways to make sure that you're
eliminating as many of the variables as you
possibly can is just by keeping everything
clean.
Second one - for teaching new people would
be don't be afraid to screw up, like be adventurous
with this man, I mean at the very basic level
your formula for making beer is yeast + water
+ sugar = CO2 and alcohol.
Don't cheap out, buy as high as you can possibly
afford to. Yes it is a little bit of an investment,
it's actually a lot less expensive than a
lot of people think, but you'll spend a few
hundred dollars getting started.
When you first started out what mistakes did
you make and what mistakes would you tell
people to avoid.
As you're putting your beer into the bottles,
basically what happens is your beer isn't
carbonated at that point, your beer is flat.
In order to carbonate your beer you have to
reactivate the yeast that's in there. To do
that, all you're doing is adding a little
bit of sugar to your batch of beer before
you put it into the bottle. Not that much,
like seriously a very very small amount. Like
to do a gallon size like this you're talking
like a quarter to half ounce of sugar. Teaspoon,
table spoon, mix it into some water so it's
dissolved, let it cool, pour it into your
beer, stir it up and plunk it into the bottle.
So that's something to keep in mind, don't
put too much sugar when you're brewing beer
cuz that's not good. Explosive !
Making those mistakes is actually pretty crucial
to the learning process so hands down make
'em.
When you first started home brewing, what
did that process look like, how many hours
did you put in, what kind of resources, maybe
what books you read, and since then what have
you done to keep your skills nice and sharp.
When we first started out home brewing, basically
what we did is went batch by batch. So we'd
start out and luckily now there's a lot of
really good resources out there. There's full
brewing kits that you can buy; it's literally
a box that's this big and has everything you
need in terms of ingredients to brew your
beer.
Those were immensely helpful to get the ball
rolling, especially for people who didn't
know what they were doing ahead of time. So
starting with that we'd start with a batch,
we'd brew that batch, we'd wait till it went
to bottle we'd wait till it conditioned, we'd
pop the bottles, we'd taste it, we'd see how
it went and we'd then start another batch.
The only thing I could say is, I mean me personally,
I just jumped into it, like it's one of those
ones where if you're going to do it bite the
bullet, go for it, don't be afraid to screw
up, get out there, get some of the basics
together and just start brewing. It doesn't
matter what you're brewing, start with a pale
ale, start with something and just keep going,
try different recipes, try different ingredients,
it's one of those that it's such an organic
process that everyone's journey through brewing
is totally different. Awesome
And how has home brewing impacted your life?
It's given me a great hobby. It's become more
than just a passion, it's gotten to the point
where like I said before, I'm actually working
right now to go back to school to actually
take brewing a lot more seriously.
Awesome, well thanks so much for coming on
the show. It's been a pleasure. likewise,
we'll see you next time.
There you have it, let the home brewing begin,
I definitely learned a lot from that video
and I hope that you did too.
Leave a comment, share the video and Subscribe
to the channel !! It's the Kaizen Man, until
next time :-)
LOOOOL How has home brewing impacted your
life
K let's start from the top. I certainly a
learned a lot from that video and I hope that
you did too. Leave a comment, share the video
and subscribe to the channel .. Please
LOOOOL
Please !! Please !!
Alright one more sign out, I like that one
but one more sign out .. Yeah definitely one
more.
