BEER

It is irrefutable, dads and beer go together like waning athletic prowess and a pulled groin. I never really had any athletic prowess to begin with, unless you count hacky sack. But I am a father and yes, now I love beer as I once loved hacky sack.

Not just any beer though. I like my beer like I like my woman, bitter and stout. Okay, that's an old joke, not even mine, but I do like my beer to have character. I like variety. I want dark beers, hoppy IPAs, stouts, porter, ales, and everything in between. I don't want the generic pap produced for the masses. If a brewery shills their beer with a TV commercial filled with scantily clad women and guys high-fiving each other, chances are, I'll pass. Sure, that beer has its place in the cultural milieu - mostly with the Wal-Mart set - like The Big Bang Theory or chaotic MMA t-shirts with brand names like Brutalize and Ass-Whupping.

But good beer is expensive. When I was a young single man going to university and irresponsibly hemorrhaging my student loan, money was no object; drinking beer was the object and my tastes were not as discerning then. Graduate university, kids come along, bills to pay, loans to manage, day to day family life puts a strains on the household finances and at the end of the day you still want to put a cold one back. But there are no bucks left to buy beer, at least not in good conscience.

I found salvation in the miracle of homebrewing. Not the nasty, cloudy stuff in plastic green bottles your uncle used to make, the stuff your dad referred to as 'ghetto-shine.' There are great kits out there. Obviously, making it from scratch, grinding the grain, steeping the cracked grain, boiling the wort, etc..., is the way to go. But didn't I mention that I have kids! Who has the time?

Buy the bladder kits, Brewhouse is great, available in almost every style and incredibly user friendly. Basically a concentrated wort, add water, pitch your yeast and Bob's your uncle. They are also very hackable. You can add hops, malt, less water, more water (why would you do that?), honey, maple syrup, vanilla, fruit, the list is endless. For about $35 you can pick up a kit that will yield a good, if not great, twenty-three litres of beer.

What?! you say.

Yeah, that's right. Let's do the math: twenty three litres is roughly 11 six-packs. Eleven six-packs of decent microbrew would cost about $132. That's gonna save you almost $100. Affordable indulgence. Put away that hacky sack, it is time for a new hobby.