The advance of technology has ushered in an era of home brewing amateur brewmasters. Micro brewery success stories in America abound. However, this story is about our exciting foray into home brewing and the explosive pitfalls of home brewing without solid recipes, tools or equipment.

Our path to the home beer brewing experience originates from trips to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg Virginia. During our visit we experienced the awesome features of mainstream brewing manufacturing and technologies. The rapid stream of canned beer zipping by in seconds conjured up day-dreams of personal brewing success. One day, I envisioned, I would be a super-hero defeating my arch nemesis and saving the world with the perfect beer. I would stand before the world with my cans clutched; one in each hand and a halo of Goodness about my head; uttering words of super-hero encouragement to all suffers of bad brew. "Worry not! The perfect brew is here! The giant has been slain and you are all free! Super-Brew is the perfect brew for you!"

My day-dream was abruptly ended when we were asked to move onto the next leg of the tour. We saw the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale horse team. Pure white tufts of hair about their legs and long beautiful manes of the majestic beasts seemed surreal. The last leg of our tour, and most exciting, was the long line of people standing in the cafeteria waiting for a free sample of freshly brewed beer. Wow, that was the best beer I ever tasted. Right off the brewery production line, cold, smooth, refreshing and tasteful made me wonder why I wasn't making beer at home.

I know I'm not a super-hero and I doubt I would ever topple the giants. However, the home brewing experience is not about becoming a giant killer. Home brewing is more about becoming a personal craftsman, an artist, a flavor connoisseur for pure personal enjoyment between family and friends. Our foray into home brew was an exciting ride much like the amusements at Busch Gardens.

The first thing I did was find a home brewing kit. Finding a home brewing kit was tough at the time because few kits existed. Today home beer brewing kits are readily available. I don't remember the name of my first home brewing kit but it resembled a Mr. Beer home brewing kit.

Unfortunately my first brewing kit was not very good and was not a Mr. Beer kit. The kit keg was split like a beer barrel clamshell and used a square gasket (poor design). The kit included bottles, caps, grains, hops, labels, and directions. I dutifully followed the directions by boiling the ingredients and creating the wort. I carefully read the recipe directions to ensure no mistakes were made. I filled the kit keg and waited fermentation to occur.

Weeks later it was time to bottle the beer and it became obvious how poor my first kit actually was. Only about a quarter of the beer would fit into the bottles. Trying to make a decision about what to do with the remaining beer was my first mistake. A blunder of epic proportions was lurking with my first tap of the brewing kit keg. I filled each of the bottles and with the remaining beer I filled a wine bottle. A Riunite wine bottle I figured would be acceptable. Riunite is bubbly and the bottles are made to withstand the pressures of the bubbly wine so why wouldn't it work? I packed up my newly filled bottles and placed them in my closet for the final leg of the beer making process.

The answer, to the question above; the recipe was wrong! More specifically, the amount of sugar added to the bottles was twice the normal amount. Readers whom are now laughing know what I am about to say.

I patiently waited for my beer to become perfected as it sat in my closet. One day I received a phone call at work. Our daughter heard something and didn't think much of it. She heard more noise and as things got noisier she began to fear someone was in the house and called the police. The rustling in the closet, she thought, meant someone was hiding and hoped the police would catch the culprit. I worriedly listened to her speak. The police arrived but did not find anybody and asked her where she heard the noise. She pointed to the closet and the policeman carefully opened the door. A big mess caused by my bottled beer. The policeman realizing he was not needed left with a good story to tell his buddies at the police station.

So what happened? Too much sugar caused excessive carbonation causing the bottles to start bursting. The kicker of it all was the Riunite glass wine bottle which upon bursting sheared off the unbroken plastic bottles causing a calamity of firework proportions resembling an Independence Day celebration. My poor closet was completely coated from top to bottom with beer. My favorite sneakers were filled and, needless to say, no one was happy with me. The glass shards left only one survivor, my prized first home brewed bottle of beer.

After cleaning the closet I chilled my only bottle of beer for hours. Then I poured a cold glass of beer from my heavily scarred bottle. My first sip was a sputtering splurt! Awful, the beer tasted so bad I could have called it an assortment of cleaning fluids.

Why did it taste so bad? The answer was chlorine in the water I used. Regular tap water (drinking water) is chlorinated and causes beer to have very bad taste. Small amounts of chlorine may be okay but as it turned out the city was adding extra chlorination to the drinking water on the day I poured the water.

I threw my first kit away and ordered a Mr. Beer. Using a Mr. Beer kit I was able to create a successful batch of non-exploding beer because both the equipment and recipe was fantastic.

What did I learn?

1. Do spend a little extra on a good starter kit
2. Do not trust any recipe that is written in English on one side and Chinese on the other
3. Verify your recipe against other known good quality recipes
4. Never, Never, Never use glass wine bottles someone could die
5. Use inexpensive bottled water not tap water or at least check the city chlorination schedule
6. Pick a non-grain recipe for your first batch it is much easier. A non-grain recipe is one that uses premixes and syrups. (much less cooking)
7. Home brewing can be an emotional roller coaster ride when things go a-rye (pun intended)

Only you can decide if home beer brewing is for you. Whatever you do, take heed of my experiences and don't make the same mistakes.