Homebrewing is awesome and I created a list of reasons for what makes it so awesome. I believe that the following reasons really make homebrewing one of the coolest and most useful hobbies in the world.
It is time to enjoy the best of brews because life is too short for a bad beer.
1. Homebrewed beer is better than store-bought beer
The beer you can brew at home can easily beat any other beer you ever bought in a store. Homebrewing is similar to what craft breweries make, a quality product over quantity.
With homebrewing, you can create a phenomenal beer because you control the entire process and use only the most real ingredients you can find.
You don’t have to worry about storage, expiration date, mass production which lowers quality, expenses, and trying to fit the needs of millions of customers at the same time.
For all these reasons, you can focus on only one idea and that is to make the best beer to fit your taste!
2. Homebrewed beers are healthier than commercial beers
It’s true, alcohol is not healthy (although it can be beneficial in small doses), and drinking beer for health is not a smart decision.
However, homebrewed beer has lots of vitamin B 12 (especially dark ales like stouts) and magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, and thiamine. These vitamins and minerals are a result of grains and yeast fermentation. Next, hops have anti-inflammatory properties, so hoppy bears can reduce inflammation in your body.
Additionally, extra ingredients like honey, herbs, and spices can also have healthy properties.
I have dedicated an entire article to the health benefits of homebrewed beer, so you can check it out for more info.
In short, Light to moderate drinking can improve blood sugar control, help your body to remove cholesterol and protect your heart, aid bone density and lower dementia risk.
Fermented products are good for us, and therefore people enjoy kefir and kombucha purely for health benefits.
However, all of these benefits count for light to moderate drinking. Heavy alcohol intake will easily overwrite these benefits and worsen your health.
The mentioned may apply to commercial beers as well, but they are usually filtered of good things and made in large quantities and unknown ingredients. When you make your beer, you know EXACTLY what is going on in it!
3. You’ll save money
Do you wonder how much could homebrewing cost? Not much, and once you pay off the initial investment with a couple of batches, you’ll be making beer for pennies.
However, you’ll need to learn how to make good beer and put in a couple of hours in brewing, so unless you see it as a hobby, it will take you some time and we know that time is money.
Once you get used to it and get the equipment, you’ll only need to switch ingredients, caps, and a sanitizer.
I enjoy brewing, so 70% of my beers are gone within the first week because I surprise friends and family.
One day, I might need a cake, so I will demand they bake me some in exchange. A good old trade.
4. You’ll never run out of the beer
Right now I have 3 types of craft homebrewed beer in the fridge I can choose from.
Another batch is brewing, and right when I finish these beers, the next one will be done.
This is a never-ending cycle and will make you a favorite person in the life of every beer lover.
Although, sometimes you might need an excuse, or else you may have guests sitting on your couch till the next Superbowl.
Speaking of this, recently I noticed that since I started to homebrew, I have more friends around me, hmmm.
5. Beer is a great gift
Realistically, it’s hard that your friends won’t enjoy a good beer even if they are not into drinks.
Everyone got a taste for something and all you have to do is to figure out what may they like and brew it.
Any craft beer will be a good gift to friends and family, but if you really want to stand out and show affection to your beloved ones, brew a special beer just for them!
You can always make a small batch of something special like a valentine’s day cherry ale and surprise them for a special day.
Sometimes money can’t buy a thing that speaks about how you care for someone, but you can certainly brew one!
6. Enjoy the beers you never enjoyed before!
Unless you are a resident of a beer specialized shop, the chances are you are not familiar with like around 500 beer styles.
Yes, there are so many beer styles and styles of styles and most people don’t even try more than a couple of styles in their entire life.
How about Pumpkin ale you can enjoy for Halloween or chestnut, honey amber beer for early autumn?
Milk stout is a must during Christmas and consists of very low ABV, so you won’t easily get drunk, but it will keep you heated!
Porter this, Stout that, Rosemary lager, you got enough beers for a whole night!
Each barrel can be something new that you never tried before. Surprise yourself from time to time, life otherwise gets pretty boring.
7. It comes as a rehab
Finding a perfect hobby is not something to be forced and it should rather come naturally. The thing with hobbies is that we shouldn’t have to look at what others are doing, but rather see what our interests already are and make a hobby out of it.
Beer brewing is an excellent hobby for beer lovers because if you enjoy the beer and have crafty hands, you might enjoy brewing it.
We all live under pressure these days, and just the possibility to lock yourself in the garage or in a basement out of problems for a couple of hours is wonderful.
Brewing will calm your mind, make you forget about the problems, and win you over by all those smells of glory.
Seriously, the smells from hops and malts are something out of this world.
8. Forget bad hangovers
I don’t recall the last time I had a hangover after drinking my craft homebrewed beer.
Going back in time things weren’t so nice. I have terrible flashbangs of hangovers when I had a day full of chores, but my head was a balloon.
Now, it no longer happens because homebrewed beer is simply better and I know what I brew it with.
PS. Still drink plenty of water with any beer, do not repeat my mistakes.
9. You practice the old art
The art of brewing is old as the first civilizations. Egyptians brewed beer after they discovered the magic of yeast also known as fermentation. Since then, everything was fermented, and numerous recipes were made.
Brews like mead and beer were at the times considered both as drinks of kings and drinks of peasants at different stages in history.
Beer brewers also saved lives back in the day. In 19. century when water was infected with cholera all over Britain, those who enjoyed beer instead of water avoided it.
There’s so much about the history of brewing and when you homebrew you participate in its glory and continue the tradition.
10. Opportunity to do something together
If the reason why you are homebrewing is to get away from your wife or husband, I suspect you’ll want to do it alone. However, sometimes we don’t have to run and hide from each other and instead try to find hobbies we can share.
Homebrewing can be done solo, but it’s easier to brew with a helping hand!
It can be any person in your life you want to spend more time with. Brewing will make you cooperate, have tons of fun and make you both feel proud once the brew is done!
I seriously believe that we should do more things together, and this was the way for me to reunite with some old friends.
11. Beer brewing is not hard and mysterious
The process of beer brewing seems impossible to most people who think it’s completely out of their reach for one reason only, they never asked how can it be done.
When people enjoy beer, they don’t think to replicate it at home. Contrary, after a nice launch in the restaurant, as soon as they get home, they Google the recipes for that Ramsey’s Wellington stake.
It’s not easy to make a good stake Wellington, but some will succeed. On other hand, most people won’t even try to make beer because they think it’s not something you can do at home.
How many times have I caught people being utterly surprised after trying my beer for the first time.
They expected it to be, well, anything amateur but certainly not a beer that tastes like beer and definitely not better than the commercial beer they are used to.
Now, they are used to my beer, and they love it! Although, this puts a toll on my supply chain because I have fulled every available fridge and barely have room for pickles.
The first thing people think of when I tell them that I brew beer at home is that I have those big tanks and fancy pipes, wheels, rotors, and things I can’t pronounce.
The reality is you only need a bucket, a bowl, a few small parts that cost $10, and water, malts, hops, and yeast from the ingredients.
12. Homebrewing may become a business
Brewing at home differs from brewing for others, but both come from the same ground which is knowing how to make a good beer.
Usually, successful businesses come from hobbies and there are not many hobbies with business potential such as homebrewing.
You may start with a simple idea to enjoy a better beer, but if you fall in love with the process and keep getting positive feedback, you may venture into the business waters.
Craft beer brewing is among the fastest-growing trends in the world. It is projected to grow from $102.58 billion in 2021 to $210.78 billion in 2028 in the USA only.
Similar trends can be spotted in Europe and many countries are yet to experience the booming of craft breweries.
As the trend grows, more and more people enjoy craft beers over commercial beers, both in pubs and stores.
