My name is Matt “New Guy” Schnell and I have been selected as the Brewer of the Month from the Manty Malters. To be honest, it took me a while to get myself into trying different craft beers. I was pretty stubborn about only drinking different domestic light beers. After some convincing from Dexter Hoban (another Manty Malters member), I started being a little more open minded about trying different craft beers, and I that was when I finally realized what I was missing out on. Over the years, I have found that the craft beers I enjoy the most are any kind of IPA or Stout. It didn’t take too long after trying my first craft beer that I started brewing beer.
I believe it was the summer 2014 when I started brewing beer. I have been brewing beer with Dexter and Justin Ulness. Dexter had bought a homebrew kit from Grape, Grain and Bean and we quickly found that we had a passion for this hobby! I remember that the first few beers we brewed were not up to par with how we were expecting them to turn out, but over time we have found a process to our brewing that has come to be successful. We mainly have been brewing at Dexter’s house because he had all of the equipment, but over time I have finally purchased enough equipment of my own so that I can continue to brew more at my house. Along with purchasing my own brewing equipment, I have purchase a few ball lock kegs along with a kegerator. After brewing some beer that we were proud of, I really wanted something simple at my house to serve the beer to friends and family.
Dexter, Justin and I attended the Advanced Homebrew Conference in Milwaukee back in January, 2016 and we determined that there were many things we were not taking into consideration throughout our brewing process. I found that this conference was extremely helpful to us and I believe this will help us tremendously as we continue to brew in the future. The three of us also attended the Fon du Lac Beer Festival and had a spot on Homebrew Alley representing the Manty Malters. It was a great experience for us as we received great feedback from the attendees of the beer festival. We brewed a Roasted Pecan Chocolate Stout, Juniper Berry Pale Ale and a Hard Cider which all went over very well by all that tried them.
Thank you to the Manty Malters club for the recognition. I haven’t been apart of the club for too long, but I have learned a lot already and I really am excited for what I can learn in the future to the different opportunities I’ll have down the road!
