In 2000, a good friend of mine invited me over to help him brew a batch of home-brew beer. I suspect he knew what would happen... and he was right: I was hooked. So we went downtown Madison to Dave's Wine & Hop Shop (http://wineandhop.com) and I got my first batch of ingredients. It wasn't long before I had expanded my brewing equipment to be able to do 3 batches at once, even to the point of having an extra refrigerator dedicated to the cause. Not only was it good for holding three 5-gallon kegs of brew, it was good for holding one batch at lagering temperatures at the prescribed in the recipe.

The name "Squirrel Hill Brewery" comes from the woods I lived in outside of Madison at the time. There were lots of nut trees, hence... a LOT of squirrels. The community "affectionately" referred to our housing area as "Squirrel Hill." The squirrels took a liking to my cedar sided home and showed their appreciation by knawing on the corners - and for a while, I declared war on them. Not only was this an ill conceived plan, but it didn't really noticeably change the squirrel population... and I switched to PVC coated seamless siding. Truce was declared... but the name stuck.

I'm still brewing today, and hope one day to switch to the whole-grain process. I have limited time and space, so I do kit beers. If you want to get started into the art of Home Brew, I suggest a trip to Dave's. I also recommend starting out with a 2-stage kit, all glass. You can save money getting a lesser set-up, but the all-glass results rival any micro-brew I've had the pleasure of quaffing. Life's too short for mediocre brew!

Pictured above is a home-made kegerator with three 5-gallon kegs inside. On the work bench in front of it are two batches going through stage-1 of the fermentation process. The picture at left shows me checking the temp on batch 2 for the day. Kit beers can be ready to drink from 3 weeks to 3 months after brewing, depending on the type you are brewing. In my opinion, the longer process of lagering yields the best flavor (and kick).