Get The Most Out Of The Holidays This Year At Great Fermentations

By Adam T. Schick for Indiana On Tap

It’s Christmas morning. You’re stirring with joy thinking about all the neatly wrapped gifts under your tree that are ready to be torn open with joy and glee. You get a glimpse at your family members’ faces as fire trucks are unboxed, LEGOs are assembled, and ugly sweaters made by your aunt Lucile are warily accepted. What could this big box with your name on it be? You don’t remember asking for anything substantial: a new shirt here, some boots there, the traditional calendar you come to expect, etc. 

You set out to unwrap your new toy. As eager as your are for something new and shiny, you’re more perplexed by what it even is! You tear and rip and pull and shred until there’s nothing left. You’ve reached the end and sit back to gaze upon the holiday’s biggest surprise… 

You got your very own homebrew kit! Finally, you’ll be able to craft your IPAs and your oatmeal stouts just like your favorite professional brewers! Oh, to think of all the different recipes, 
techniques, bottle shares, and experiments you’ll get to try. Surely your coworkers and friends will be green with envy over your cool new hobby! 

But where the heck do you even start?

Enter Great Fermentations, your one stop homebrew shop for every piece of equipment, accessory or ingredient you’ll need to start making the best beer around. I was the man in the story above at this time last year, sitting in front of my new homebrew kit with equal parts joy and confusion. I knew nothing about the process of making beer, save for information picked up from random brewery tours. Where would I even begin? And, to boot, my kit was an extra-small 1.5 gallon system. I would need to build smaller kits of ingredients instead of just buying the 5 gallon ingredient packages! 

This is where the amazing staff at Great Fermentations comes in. With their 45+ years of homebrewing experience, the GFI team is there to answer all your questions about grains, hops, sugars, flavor additives. They’ll even muster up the courage to taste your samples and help figure out where you went wrong. On my first trip in, serial brewer Wes Martin was there to greet me with a smile. We talked about my first brew, how to build a simple starter recipe, tips for sanitation and bottling, and how to get the most out of my tiny equipment. He walked me through recommendations on grains, hop profiles, and what I should expect the second I turned my burner on. 

That’s where Great Fermentations shines. Through their commitment to beginners and 
brewmasters alike. Not once did I feel nervous or embarrassed as a beginner homebrewer. Their staff truly believes in three things: helping their customers make great beer and wine on their own, providing the best products and services day in and day out, and of course their daily 5:30 p.m. shift beers. You better believe they’re not settling in for those shift beers until you’re on your way to mastering homebrewing.