Continuing my Brewing Odyssey

After relocating to Houston and taking a new job, one of my co-workers introduced me to brewing. We never brewed a beer together, but he acted as my mentor as sorts. I brewed extract beers, going for quantity, at one time having as many as 19 different styles on hand.
The beer wasn't bad, it just was not on par with what is possible with all grain brews.

In the meantime I rediscovered my beer roots. Pulling out an old collection of beer labels from my days in Munich, where I had studiously soaked off and saved labels from all the beers i drank, I discovered exactly what styles of beer I had so loved.

I unearthed my Rosetta Stone of Beer. No longer were those 1 liter beer zugs filled with just beer, they were filled with Maerzen, Maibock, Starkbier, Weissen mit Hefe, Christal Weissen, Bock, the list seemed endless.

I suddenly understood, what I liked about the beers I drank. It was like I had a hood pulled from my head, a roadmap had suddenly been thrust in to my hands.

I no longer brewed beers just for beers sake, but brewed more in lines with my tastes, which were eclectic to say the least.

I muddled along brewing through a divorce, and met and married a fledgling pub owner. For the next 5 years I brewed infrequently since I had access to over 126 different beers at the pub and my time was taken up helping out there, cooking and cleaning, taking inventory all so my future ex bi-polar wife would have a comfortable income for her and her two adult daughters.

Oh well. I take satisfaction that it and the other place she purchased, have gone down hill since, in the beer menu sense. From having a representitive beer from all the major styles on tap, the pubs now have the typical American carbonated water that passes for Light Lager, as well as a few obligatory international brews. I would venture to say that the pub has no more than 30 beers on hand. This was primarily due to the fact that the daughters did not like to do monthy inventory and had been made managers. One of the girl's stellar performances in the management realm cost her mother and me a cash cow catering business. Due to inattention, laziness and the surety and stupidity of youth, the owners of the stadium awarded the concession to others when it was clear that the girl could not make intelligent decisions and her stupidity which was hurting the stadium.

So after the divorce, I went back to homebrewing.

I decided to take the plunge into all grain back about 10 years ago. I have not looked back since. I went into kegging and doing two batch brew days.

I started a brew club at work about 5 years ago and currently brew beer for an annual company sponsored picnic with the Houston Geological Society. We usually do 20 gallons split between four styles.

I am due to brew again for this event which is this April. A Belgian tripel, a Maibock, Pale Ale and Hefe Weissen will be on tap.