I Have Found My People

So, I have mentioned that the first batch of beer turned out to be good....but light. That was to be expected considering that was what the kit was, "American Light". We have made it work, it is OK, tasty even, with a lime wedge in it. But it is still lite.

HHBL and I, as a rule, do not drink any kind of beer that has the term "light" or "lite" in the name. I seem to have found that I want a beer that tastes like a beer and not.....pissy water. I have also mentioned that we try to avoid any beer that has been brewed by one of the "Big Brewers" i.e. Miller, Coors, Budwieser. That also means that we try to avoid any of the lesser breweries that have been absorbed by the BIg Brewery Borg. You would be amazed what beers that encompasses. Yes, we are beer snobs.

Since I finished that first batch of beer I have been thinking about brewing my next batch. It has been a back of my mind obsession. So today I figured that I would pick up another one of the Mr. Beer kit refills. No reason not to start a new batch of beer, this time perhaps an IPA or ale as those are what we like best. The Mr. Beer website told me that I could pick up a refill at my local Target. I thought that was a bit odd but went ahead and swung by there on my errands rounds.

Nada.

I wandered the hallowed Target halls but didn't find where the refill kits might be. I asked at Customer Service and after the pimply faced clerk (who looked a great deal like Stan Shunpike) called someone with one of those little scanner things and that girl concluded that the refills could only be ordered on line I moved on.

I knew that there was one other place where I might find what I needed. It was a little place called Leeners and it was just around the corner. I found it, I parked, I opened the door......

And I heard the angels sing.

An entire store completely devoted to brewing beer, making wine and all sorts of other things like a kit for making fresh mozzarella cheese or BUBBLE GUM!! A true "do it yourself" candy store. But as I stood there in front of all the beer supplies, oh the beer supplies, I just didn't know what to do. I have done only one kit. I didn't see anything like what I had used before. Oh there were kits but I wasn't sure if they would work with my kit. There were parts and pieces that made up a whole but I didn't know what to put with what.

And this was when I had to make a decision. I had to ask for help.

I do not like asking for help.

Did you know that? Even if I need help I do not like asking for help. I want to be able to walk into a store and know just what I need and where to find it. To ask for help might mean that I don't know what I am doing, that I am ignorant.

I hate that.

But it was necessary. So I looked around for someone to help me. And that is when it struck me. I saw only women working there. Only women.

This place is owned and operated by women.

I can do this! I can ask another woman who obviously knows about beer (boy howdy do they!) what kit to use. I just happened to grab Kathy. With disappointment she told me that they no longer carry Mr. Beer kit refills but that the other kit refills would work. However they didn't have any IPA refills at the moment. She even went to the trouble of looking at what had come in the shipment that they were unpacking at that very moment. Nope, no IPA. I tried to tamp down my disappointment and started thinking about what other refill I might like to try when Kathy said,

Oh, I can just make you up a kit while you wait. It won't take long.

Whaaaaaaa????? Yes please.

And so Kathy grabbed some yeast from the frig. And some malt extract from a shelf. And she ground some of the barley for me. And grabbed the correct hops. And had me read through the instructions so I understood what I was supposed to do......

And I brought it all home.

Guess what I am going to be doing on Saturday morning.

A beer brewing store run by women.

I have found my people.

Now if they were also knitters I think my brain might explode.

 

Posted with Blogsy