The inevitable has happened. Armed with nothing but startup capital and a propensity for rash decision-making, I'm opening a craft brewery in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Say hello to Upside Brewing. As of March 2008, the web page is just a placeholder, but that will soon change. While you're online, why not go to the Upside homepage and join the email list? You'll be notified of important events...for instance, when we actually start making beer you can find at bars (other than that subterranean speakeasy that doubles as my apartment).
Homebrewing can be both more frustrating and more expensive than golf
I started brewing beer with my roommates during the summer of 1999, after my sophomore year at MIT. Over the next two years, we brewed over a dozen generally good--and always interesting--beers. Among the more memorable are: Sweet, Sweet Terry Porter; Big Earl's Special Sauce; The Breakfast Stout; Asses of Fire Red Stout; and of course, Graduation Mead.
After I graduated from MIT in 2001, I spent a year and a half at the University of Michigan getting a masters degree. After graduation #2 (December 2002), I took a job in New York City. From the time I left Boston until the spring of 2005, I had neither the means nor the space to brew.
Starting in March of 2005, I again took up homebrewing, but a bit more seriously than before. I began of an informal program of study of the art and science of brewing consisting of two parts. First, I read some of the seminal books on the subject, both on homebrewing and commercial brewing. Second, I put this knowledge into practice by brewing a variety of styles. In the fall of 2006, I attended the American Brewers Guild's Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering course to further my know-how.
Following are my VERY rough notes on some beers I have brewed. Looking back at the 2005 recipes, I'm amazed that I've been able to make repeatably good beers of late.
My second real ambition is to buy the Chicago Bulls. Perhaps in twenty years when every bar in the Western Hemisphere pours Upside, the brewery can purchase the Bulls.
You can take a look at an outdated copy of my resume as MS Word or a very outdated copy as plain text. With any luck, I'll be employed as the owner/founder/president/brewer/treasurer/secretary/janitor/driver/etc. for Upside for a very, very long time. So you should probably just ignore my resume anyway.