Brewing with my son

Decided to pick up some things at the brewshop tonight for a porter and a stout. After seeing all the new stuff that I bought, my son wanted to help out. I have been trying to come up with ways the two of us can do things together, so this was a great oportunity for that. I had him weigh out the grains and help mill them (First brew with the new Barley Crusher!!!). He helped stirring during the mash in and subsequent sparges. After I put the kettle on the propane burner outside (18 deg F today) I had him measure out the hops. Thats when he learned his first lesson about watching the brewpot. Small boilover, but it was outside so it was not that big of a deal. Guess I learned thast lesson myself. Then he helped me with the wort chiller and transfer into the carboy. I had a fantastic time. :rockin: He said he had fun as well, and we are planning to do a stout next week.

PS - Almost forgot, we named it J&N Porter after our initals. (Jerod & Nikolas)

Good deal!! How old is he?

My kids help me with my brewing process also its great. The younger (7yr old), wants to be a chef, is in charge of weighing the hops the older helps me with funnel holding and other tasks. Then once fermentation starts I get regular updates on airlock activity. They both usually help with bottling as well.

That's great that the kids show an interest!

My son is 2 and he is right there with me every step except for the boiling he is like my little shadow and wants to be right in there on the action I cant wait until he is big enough to do all the cleaning and sanatizing.

Child labor...*sniff sniff* it's a beautiful thing!

cheezydemon said:

Child labor...*sniff sniff* it's a beautiful thing!

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Im just waiting for the Labor Dept. to tell me I have to Pay him Min. Wage and he can only work 10 hours a week when he goes to Kindergarten.

Both my sons (4 & 2) are very interested in brewing. They love turning the handle of the Barely Crusher, stirring the mash, and watching the boil.

I get a kick out of it. I know brewing is one of those things they will always think of when the think of Dad. I also hope to instill in them an appreciation and respect for beer (all alcohol, for that matter).

merc said:

Good deal!! How old is he?

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He turns 9 at the end of the month.

Next I am going to introduce him to the bottle/carboy brushes. We will see if he still has the interest after that.

My son is two and he is with me every step of the way. I refer to him as Assistant Jr.

I got my son interested last year. Its great we have something in common.. The little guy is building me a mashtun. He says he wants to make some beer as good as mine someday. By the way the little guy is 30 years old and will probably be responding to this soon.

I've got twins that'll be 9 in March, and a "Tag a long" that'll be 7 in Feb. I guess I need to get them into training...

joejaz said:

I got my son interested last year. Its great we have something in common.. The little guy is building me a mashtun. He says he wants to make some beer as good as mine someday. By the way the little guy is 30 years old and will probably be responding to this soon.

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You beat me to it. Actually, I think the first time I even watched you do a batch (nevermind actually help) was a few recipes ago. I was too busy drinking the results...

I put mine to work up in the brewery all the time even had shirts made up for us:
The back of the shirts


The front (My oldest)


Notice the title on the left side....

Nice shirts.

Here's a couple of my brood wearing the official brew hat. This was back in my extract days. Um, I guess it was back in the days of the brew hat, too. It doesn't come out as often anymore. The little guy still likes to help with brew day from time to time.



The little lady isn't much interested in beer anymore.

My son is eight and helps me weight out the malt and hops, crush the malt, etc. He seems to like helping out, in between playing with his Wii or reading.

A funny thing happened a couple weeks ago in his 2nd grade science class. They did an experiment where they added sugar to hot water, threw in some yeast, and put a balloon over the neck of the flask to capture CO2. At which point my son tells his teacher, "This is just like when me and my dad make beer." I'm so proud.

My wife is preggos looking forward to some little helpers.. I want to plant hops and make hop harvest day a tradition every fall if I can.