Friday, March 14, 2014

Meet the Homebruer: Jamie Burns


Surely you remember Jamie's friendly face from all those trips to pick up your Reserve Society or Preservation Society beers from the Tasting Room.

Jamie has been with The Bruery for three years, but about a year and a half ago she had the opportunity to get her hands dirty with a homebrew lesson from one of our former brewers.

When did you start homebrewing?
The Bruery offered a really cool program to introduce newbies to the world of brewing by pairing us up with Jay Goodwin (one of our original brewers.)

We used Patrick's homebrew system which was still surprisingly advanced. We got to pick a beer style we wanted to brew and Jay drafted up a recipe. My first batch was a Belgian Pale Ale with Honey Tangerines.



What was is that sparked your interest?
Honestly, I became interested homebrewing after that first batch. My friend and old co-worker Jenn Doyle told me she likes to brew on the weekends. I went over to her house we brewed a partial grain IPA kit. It didn't really quite turn out as planned but I was determined to keep with it.

What's in your carboy right now?
Right now I have a nice easy drinking honey Kölsh in my carboy.

What was your biggest disaster?
Well the biggest disaster definitely happened with my third batch, which was the first time I brewed on my own. I accidentally added way too much priming sugar. When I opened a bottle for the first time, the cap shot off the bottle and flew into my ceiling. I wasn't able to salvage one bottle of that batch, but thats a good thing because from what I did taste it was terrible.

Any exciting personal victories yet?
I haven't had that moment in my brewing career yet. I believe that time will come once I brew a beer that I actually want to bring to work and have everyone judge.

What advice do you have for a new homebrewer?
New brewers, keep everything as organized and as clean as possible. You will mess up when you start brewing, but don't let it discourage you!
Read about the rest of our homebrewers on The Bruery staff in our Meet the Homebruer series:

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