Bryan “I can brew a helluva Pink Beer” Golay
Salutations my thirsty friends! This is Bryan Golay coming at you live from Cleveland, Wisconsin kickin’ it on the old school tip. I live with my wife and two dogs in a sweet little brick house surrounded by retirees that drop by with banana bread on the reg. Pretty idyllic, if you ask me. Enough pleasantries, let’s talk about brewing beer!
As a young man, beer was used to get drunk. The more you could drink, the manlier you were. Behold the mighty senior who drinks Bud Heavy, strolling through the party crushing cans on his head thinking it was a strong brew. From there, I transitioned to drinking whatever (not a picky eater).
I don’t remember what exactly caused me to grab Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout off the shelf. But after I drank that sweet, viscous treat I was hooked. Alas, I lived in central Iowa, not exactly Mecca for craft beer. What does an industrious young man do in such dire times? Make his G-D own beer (ask his wife to buy him a brewing kit for his birthday).
I dove in head first with my first brew, making two batches that first day. Both extract kits from an online store: Moose Drool Clone and a Cream Ale. Four weeks later and after the first sips I was happy, but not ecstatic. Hooked, I had a voracious appetite for anything brewing related and brewed immediately when I had carboy space. I’m fairly confident I ended up losing a few friends as I delved deeper into the rabbit hole, but there was no going back.
I bought some copper tube, a garage sale angle grinder, and dug a cooler out of the basement and made myself a state of the yard mash tun. Representing all grain, son. Man, the first two brews were terrible. Ridiculous. After some more trial and error (and reading and research) I started to churn out some decent beers. Beers that people could drink with a straight face.
Now I’m just trying to make beers I want to drink. Like if I had a fridge full of commercial craft beer, I’d still choose mine. This would be way easier if I ever got around to getting my kegging setup off the ground, but eh, bottling is awesome and not at all wasteful and I get to have all this glass sitting around looking pretty and making my basement not look roomy.
