Posted by Jason Koebel on 22nd May 2014

Photo By: Brad Kotnik & James Fetterly

Brewing beer has never been easier in Canada than it is right now. You have easy access to any ingredient and mouth drooling gear you could ever imagine, all available locally or on our very own website at beergrains.com. The internet is chock full of information on how to brew, clone your favorite beers, formulate your own recipes, and even win homebrew competitions. Now is the best time ever to get started so here are 10 reasons to start brewing right now!

1 It Tastes Better

The best reason of all is you can brew the beer you like to drink. If you can imagine it you can brew it. There are no limits to the spectrum of flavours and aromas you can get from your beer. You can brew a straight up classic style such as an Ale, Lager, Stout, Hefeweizen, Barley Wine, Porter or one of the other countless styles. Or tweak your recipe with different grain, more/less hops, oak chips, experiment with different yeasts, and add fruit like orange peel or juniper berries. With some practice you can fine tune your recipes to appeal to the only person in the world who's taste buds matter, you.

2 Inner Caveman

No gender stereotypes intended here. Brewing beer connects you to your inner caveman in much the same way that fishing, hunting, building a deck, and screwing in a light bulb does. There is an inherent primal satisfaction in doing something yourself and sharing it with others. Just like your prehistoric ancestors went out in the wee hours, clubbed a sabretooth tiger, dragged it back to the cave and proudly said "EW-EW-EW!"; which of course meant "look what I did cave people, I'm pretty awesome eh!". Brew your own beer and you will get exactly the same caveman-like satisfaction.

3 It's Easy

Brewing beer is as easy or as complicated as you want to make it. The basic principles are just that, basic. Follow them and you will brew great beer. Unlike rocket science or heart surgery, brewing beer requires no special skills. If you can boil water you're halfway there. If you choose to take it to the next level and get sciency and technical you can do that too.

4 It's Fun

What could be better than making your own beer? Once you get started there is nothing that can wipe that smile off your face. Not only is it fun, it's one of the most relaxing and stress free ways to spend your day. The best part of all is you can drink the fruits of your labour while you brew. You can also share this new found joy with your friends and family who inevitably become your unwitting taste testers. Before long they become your best customers and advocates.

5 Fresh Factor

A reputable retailer like Beer Grains Supply Co will only sell fresh ingredients. Brewing with fresh ingredients is like cooking with vegetables from your garden. It not only tastes better but it's also better for you. As a homebrewer you can select top quality fresh ingredients, brew it, and drink it within a few weeks. That's as fresh as it gets! There are no preservatives to make it survive the hollows of the retail market like mass produced beer. Due to this fresh factor homebrewed beer is the best quality beer on the planet.

6 Save Money

You can expect to pay between $18 to $40 on ingredients for a 5 US gallon (18.9 Litre) batch of beer depending on the style of beer you're brewing and whether you're brewing an all-grain or extract beer; after your initial investment in a starter kit. That's a cost of between $0.32-$0.72 per standard 341ml bottle or $7.68-$17.32 per case of 24! Most beer can be brewed for around $12 per case. Keep in mind that we're talking about full flavour beer using farm fresh, quality ingredients. Wow, the best quality at the lowest cost! Pinch me!

7 Win Competitions

Canada has a ton of homebrew competitions each year. Most are hosted by a homebrew club like the ones listed in this Homebrew Clubs Directory. Enter your best brews and you could win some incredible prizes. Your beer will be judged and given feedback by (in most cases) certified judges and top brewers. This feedback is invaluable to improving your craft. Best of all, if you win you get bragging rights and sack full of personal satisfaction to boot. The road to being a better brewer is paved with lots of practice and feedback from competition judges.

8 Make Friends

Homebrewers are great people and the brewing community is HUGE! When you become a homebrewer you are guaranteed to make new friends. Join a homebrew club, attend beer tastings and festivals like National Capital Beer Week and Toronto Beer Week, become active in online forums like Homebrewtalk and Canadian Home Brewers. When people find out you brew your own beer they are instantly interested and they hang off every word you say, it's almost magical.

9 Learn About Beer

The best way to learn about beer is to learn how to make it. You will become well versed in the entire sensory experience and how to customize that experience to your tastes. As you become more aware of how smelling, touching, tasting, and seeing beer creates a sensory symphony you will increase your appreciation of beer ten fold. By understanding how each ingredient and method of brewing enhances and alters beer it will open the door to truly appreciate and understand the greatest beverage on earth.

10 Carry on the Tradition

Long before bikini clad girls promoted beer made by massive factories people brewed beer at home. The history of brewing beer goes back 6000 years. It was a staple of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and was consumed daily by people of all ages and statures from cradle to grave. The domestication of cereal grains, farming, and migration led to the colonization of the planet. Beer was a form of liquid currency and a safe drink when urban water supplies became contaminated so often the first crop planted was barley so that beer could be made. Louis Hébert, who emigrated to Quebec in 1617, is believed to be Canada's first homebrewer. Since then homebrewing has been an important part of Canada's history. For hundreds of years most communities had a local brewpub and brewery that produced mostly heavier, full flavoured beer quite unlike the light beer most modern North American consumers are use to. When Prohibition squashed brewing activities there was a massive decline in the number of homebrewers and breweries. Thankfully the craft beer revolution began in the UK in the 1970's and quickly spread to North America helping to bring homebrewing back to it's former glory. Become a homebrewer and carry on the tradition.