Hi! How’s the long weekend working for you guys? Jamie (check out his newish homebrew blog!), Nick and I are spending Saturday and Sunday at the Singapore Mini Maker Faire, spreading the word of homebrewing to a geeky and cute kid audience also here to learn about 3D printing, leather bag making, robotics and kitty cat ears that flap about, its Japanese maker says, by sensing his brain waves from prods placed against his forehead. Err, okay!
For the kids popping by the booth, we’re giving them a smelling experience and getting them to sniff out the very subtle differences between the different malts (Vienna, Cara Gold, 2-row, Chocolate and Wheat, if you’re interested) and watch them wrinkle their noses at Columbus hops pellets – haha! Evil Jamie picked one of the funkiest hops for people to smell.
The adults are getting a quick primer from Jamie and I on how beer is made, and the basic equipment that they’ll need to get started. Jamie got two jars of yeast starters working – one occasionally shaken, the other constantly spinning on a stir plate – and did a brew in a bucket at 3pm for a curious audience, all charmed by the lovely smells of malt meeting warm water.
It was really funny though, after we’d gotten the wort, we realised that we didn’t have a hops bag ready to hold the Columbus together in the boil. Resourceful Jamie got some materials from Stephanie and John’s booth (they were showcasing their beer fetching robot – we need that!), who gave him a fabric scrap, a needle and some thread to sew one himself.
Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out. So I had to step in and sew one for us. :)
Pity we’re not allowed to serve any beer on site, but it’s probably for good reason too. We realised after a few hours yesterday that lots of guys came up to the booth asking, ‘Ah, do you have sample?’ only to walk away when we said no.
Nevertheless, we managed to speak to a bunch of people interested in brewing beer. If you were one of the curious few that took Nick’s or my name card, hello, and welcome to Beer Can Lah :) You may find out more about brewing beer at this link here, and if you’re interested to really learn more and get your hands (and kitchen) dirty brewing beer, fill in the form here and we’ll get in touch the next time we run a workshop.
See more pictures from our days out at the Singapore Mini Maker Faire here:
4 Comments
Thanks for your help Natasha — I had a blast, but it would have been pretty tough doing that alone!
In case anybody was wondering, the beer we brewed came home with me in a taxi and is happily fermenting in my living room as I type this. Although the conditions at SMMF weren’t perfect (for beer brewing), I think this might actually turn out okay. I’m calling it “Makers SMASH”, as it’s a “Single Malt And Single Hops” beer (Maris Otter and Columbus), and it will probably find its way into bottles next weekend. I’ll be sure to make Natasha and Nick drink some, so reviews to follow.
Thanks for having me Jamie! That was a crazy two days, wasn’t it!
I’m half worried about trying the beer next week… but, why not eh? For science!
Hello! Great meeting you during the faire. Didn’t have a chance for a long discussion but good to know that there are beer brewers in Sg. Was in HK and it seems to be bubbling there a lot more :-)
Hey Agy, nice meeting you there too :)