For Eva Grouling-Snider, brewing her own beer wasn’t about following in the footsteps of famous home brewers like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. She chose to follow the footsteps of someone closer to her heart, her brother.
“He got me a kit for Christmas and I have been brewing ever since,” said Grouling-Snider.
Brewing helped Grouling-Snider strengthen her relationship with her brother. It even introduced her to a whole community of home brewers.
“Brewing usually takes around four hours. When you’re brewing with other people you have plenty of time to socialize and build and community. The best part is that you can drink you’re previous brews while you make your new batch,” Grouling-Snider said.
Brewing not only allows Grouling-Snider to spend time with friends, it also allows her to spend time experimenting in the kitchen. One of her favorite hobbies is cooking at home with herbs, spices, and vegetables that she grows herself.
Grouling-Snider’s love for customizing her meals transferred over to brewing. She can customize each batch of beer to be just the right amounts of crisp, sour, or hoppy.
“There’s just something very rewarding about drinking something that you know you worked for,” she said.
Customization goes farther than the flavors. Grouling-Snider names and designs a label for each of her brews.
Some brews are named after the featured flavors in each batch. Others have stories behind the names.
“My brother neglected to tell me that he pours each ounce of hops into the boiling wort individually. One time, I poured a five-ounce bag into the wort all at once. What basically happened was a volcano of hops. After almost two hours of cleaning, I had a batch named “Hops-Plosion,” she said.
To avoid any other messy brewing sessions, Grouling-Snider frequently reads forums and books to help with any questions that she might have. She attributes most of her success to the employees of Indy Brew, a home brewing store in Indianapolis.
“There’s plenty of places to find help now that home brewing is a quickly growing trend,” Grouling-Snider said. “The geeks are out of the closet, and geeky hobbies are now becoming the mainstream.”
To those that are interesting in diving into a new “geeky hobby,” Grouling-Snider suggests following in her footsteps by “finding a buddy.”
“I’m not sure if I would have ever started without my brother,” she said. “Having someone to brew with encourages you to experiment and try everything without hesitation.”