Dean “Damm I Busted Right Though Your Screen Door” Wiensch

Without further ado;

…….Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls, Children of all ages (as long as you are over 21); Introducing this month, a fairly new member of the Manty Malters group; Dean “DAMM” Wiensch.

Now, Dean admittedly is a converted “mass market” beer convert.  After enjoying the Miller Lite’s and Coors Lights of the world for many years, he finally made the conversion to homebrew/craft brew.  How you ask??  It all started with a trip to Milwaukee in 2010 for Dean.  He and his awesome wife were on their way there for a weekend of something different as well as a Gaslight Anthem concert at the Rave.  (Side note, look them up. They rock!) Being that it was a weekend away, and the concert wasn’t until late Saturday Night, what is a person to do….BEER TOURS!!  What else?!

Dean and his wife spent that weekend in September 2010 touring Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee Brewing Co, and Sprecher.  All pretty good tours by the way…Milwaukee Brewing Co. being the best though.  They both left with a new outlook on beer and how it is made.  It wasn’t long after they got home, when Dean started putting those running thoughts of making his own beer to good use.  He shopped online as well as locally in Manitowoc at Grape Grain and Bean for many days while trying to figure out just what he needed.  As a starting block, he bought a Mr. Beer kit. and made a few of the styles they have.  He wasn’t overly pleased with the results and knew there had to be more to this hobby.  So, the next step occurred even before 2010 ended.  He bought a complete kit with buckets, fermenters, auto siphons and the like, along with his first Brewers Best kit.  It was an IPA.  Little did Dean know that he wasn’t quite to the level of making an IPA quite yet.  This beer did not turn out so good.  Not discouraged, he bought another kit, and another, and another (Personally, I admire Dean’s tenacity. Many brewers give up if their beer doesn’t turn out the first time).  After about 6 kits, he realized that he could make his own recipes and hasn’t looked back since.  Sure from time to time he throws a kit into the pot…but not really all that often for Dean.

In 2011, it was time to give the hobby a name.  Thus, D.A.M.M. Brewery was born.   Since then, in his 3 plus years, he has made almost 75 batches in the homebrew hobby.  Some have been a success, like his D.A.M.M. Lite and his annually brewed Cherry Tree Wheat made with real Door County cherries. Some have not been so good, but we won’t talk about those here.  Dean takes great pride in designing and brewing his own recipes and thoughts on brewday.  Along with that there has to be a place to enjoy such a fine product.  So in 2011 Dean spent many hours converting an older, donated (thanks to his again…awesome wife) chest freezer into a 4 tap kegerator.  He can now enjoy a great variety of his homebrew at any given time…provided he doesn’t run out of Co2.

In 2013, Dean joined the Manty Malters Homebrew club.  The group has taught him so much and is such a great group of friends that they are almost like family.  He also enjoys almost all styles of craft beer and has welcomed learning what it takes for each style with his Manty Malters friends.  He is also planning on trying to obtain his BJCP Certification sometime this year.  He has not yet won any awards for his beer but, you have to enter competitions for that, and he is hoping to someday.

–      Prost!