HOP TO IT
Maybe you’ve flirted with home brewing in the past but found it was too hard to get good results. It’s never been easier to get into brewing and make beer that’s not just cheap, not just drinkable, but actually great. Ben Middlemiss has been brewing beer for 50 years. He started, like most, in his shed, then his family moved to Australia. The hot sun there produced a raging thirst among friends and workmates, which meant that he had to keep up production. By the time he came back to New Zealand, creating beers of distinction was Ben’s real passion and he has a stack of international awards to prove it. He’ll be our guide through the process.
Whole new brewing world
Ben says that the quality of the gear, ingredients, and help available for firsttime brewers now is light years ahead of what was available when he started. The boom in commercial craft beers and the home-brew scene has grown hand in hand. Indeed, most successful craft-beer brewers started out as home brewers.
“Back then, you did it because it was cheap, but now the gear available is amazing,” Ben says. “I’ve walked into brew shops and there’s stuff in there costing thousands. The money people put into it now is staggering.”
“Back then, you did it because it was cheap, but now the gear available is amazing”
Ben says that there’s no doubt good gear gives people more control and more options, reduces labour, and
