Brewing with kids?

[Brocster]

I'm already teaching my daughter quality over quantity. She'll be the only college girl at the kegger sipping a glass of belgian strong while the other kinds are pouring Icehouse down the beer bong.

LOL.... I love this reply!

 

[hbomb]

I've got a 6 year old who loves to stir the brew kettle and add hop additions. I always explain the science behind it, but never really thought it sunk in until I overheard him explaining to a friend how "the yeast eat the sugar and poop out alcohol, which will make us sick 'cause we're too small". Might have been the proudest moment of my life! I let him have sips here and there. Afterall, he's got to sensitize his pallet somehow...

 

[Jaybird]

look at my gallery. It has a nice story to it.

 

[CABeerMaker]

My kids are 8 & 9, they both help on brewday. They will help stir and remind me when its time for hop additions. Half the time I have to hunt my kids down because they have run off with my hops to smell. They fight over who gets to add the yeast and are always helping with bottling. Now if I could get them to help with clean up it would be perfect. They have never asked to sample any beer, but if they wanted to I would let them.

 

[Brutus Brewer]

Okay, so forgive me, I know pretty much nothing about children. We're planning on having a couple of our own in the next year or so, and I'm just curious about how you guys combine this hobby with raising kids. How do they deal with the fact that they aren't allowed to drink the result of all this work until they're (much) older? Or do you just let them try it? Or do they just not care? I really like the idea of chillin' with the kiddos out on the front deck while I brew, but I don't want to have CPS come knocking on our door when the kids bring their homebrewing experiences to "show and tell".

Just curious!

My daughter plays out in the yard or in the garage while I'm brewing. I let her stir and pour the last little bit of water from the gallon jug when I use them.

 

[LeeF]

My 4 year old son helps on brew day by helping with the hops. One day my mother-in-law walked up during a session and he told her we were 'brewing beer and saving lives'. There may be more truth to that than we want to admit.

 

[Homercidal]

My younger has begged me to let her scrape the paint off old 10oz Coke bottles I'm saving for my barlewine. I'd let her do it but I can do 10 in the time it takes her to do 1. Then again, I really should get that in the bottles.

 

[OCDB]

My son is almost five, since I'm only on my first batch I haven't had much experience getting him involved. But with this first run I've treated it as though it were a science experiment. Daily we go in and peek at the fermenter to check on the science experiment. He asked where the bubbles came from. So I mixed up a little starter of bread yeast so he could see what happens up close and explained how basically the bubbles were bug farts.

While I can't say whether he'll appreciate beer because of the hobby, I'd like to think that he can have a healthy and fun attitude towards science and experimenting.

 

[RecruitNBrew]

My 21 month old just learned to say "Da-Da's Beer" whenever he sees the fermenting brew in the carboy. It think it's about the coolest thing ever. I intend to involve him in the brewing process as much as possible. Can you say "Free Labor"???

Hell, someone needs to watch the brewpot to avoid boilovers while I watch the game on TV!!!

 

[Brewin_CRAZY]

Saying from experience (dont have my own but a friend of the familys children) he was over and we were brewing, the kids were involved. One is 6 and one is 8, the were really excited to be a part of it. When we were done the kids really wanted to try some "beer" because us adults were all drinking. So he pulled out a couple glasses and poured some chilled wort into them (like 6 oz) and just let the kids drink that. They were so excited and its totally safe for them to drink, no alcohol but it keeps your children involved. He said its a common occurrence when his older child is helping him.

 

[dibby33]

I have a 3 year old and a 4 month old.

Through years 1 and 2 brewing was a snap. Now, the 3 year old is in the middle of everything I do and I cannot brew with him around either because he is not co-ordinated enough to be trusted around the heated rig or because he is always getting into things he shouldn;t and requires constant supervision.

So, I tried only brewing at night after he goes to sleep. Brutal! Especially the next morning when he demands my attentions regardless of how interactive mommah is with him. Yes, he's a daddy's boy cause I do all the kewl stuff with fire, tools, etc...

Lately, I have just resigned myself to taking days off work to brew on. And it's good.

ditto. as soon as they can walk you are buggered. Then once they get tv addicted, can eat on their own without you fearing chocking, stop colouring in the walls with pens, then you can start again. My are now 3 and 5 and I think that I maybe able to do an extract batch on the cooker without too much trouble.

Good luck.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Kids generally don't care that they can't try it. My kids think brewing is cool, and they like to tell people about it. It's been a little funny when they write stories for class about what they did over the weekend, or a story about their dad, etc.

 

[samc]

My kids go the opposite direction when I start to brew. They could care less and figure they might be drafted to help clean up, they are too frickin smart about that part of it.

Now I have to figure who to leave my stand to when I go to brew central.

 

[mr_goodwrench]

My daughter is 7 now and she has been helping me brew ever since I got back into brewing when she was 5. She has a very scientific mind and wants to know how everything works. I like to joke that she knows more about the brewing process than the majority of the workers at the local A-B brewery!

As for school, she just finished first grade and toward the begining of the school year, she wrote the following in her writer's workshop:

I expected a phone call from school for awhile after that came home, but it never came.

I also agree with the majority of the others in that I believe I am instilling a healthy understanding and respect for alcohol that a lot of her peers probably won't get in today's society that tries to protect and shelter children from the real world.

 

[beerfan]

I have 4, 10 and 18 year olds at home. The oldest could care less and the other two like to help where they can once in awhile and at this stage have no problems with the fact it isnt for them and they have not asked to try it.

 

[tarheels]

My 3 yr old helped mash watermelon for a watermelon wheat. She loved helping, but never wanted to try it.

 

[ChshreCat]

My 15 year old spent 2 hours last night washing and delabeling bottles. Tonight, we're bottling our APA. She'll fill while I cap. She really enjoys having a hand in it, even if she doesn't get to drink any.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

thought I'd add some brewing-with-kids pics...

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Mr goodwrench, that's awesome. My son wrote something similar and it had the teacher in tears laughing.

 

[Shooter]

Are those crayfish?

 

[Lil' Sparky]

yeah, we boiled some mud bugs at our last brew day. yums!

 

[ChshreCat]

I have never had a crayfish in my life. Someday I hope to remedy that atrocity.

 

[rarjr]

sparky....those look so good!
I always wanted to give them a go but I have no idea how to eat those little bastards!
I'll try to crack them like little lobsters and make an ass of myself.

kids....I have a 7yr old and he's my official grainmaster.
I prepare each recipe the night before and weigh the grain out into 5gallon pails. come brewday while i'm starting the keggles he dumps the grain into the hopper and turns the beast on. Later in the day he is johnny on the spot for the hop additions.

 

[Bullshivit-brew]

MMMMMM crawdaddys red taiters and corn. y-all talk funny down there but you have kick ass food And as far as kids I have a 9,10&12 year old and let them help and taist if they want the only one that likes it is my 10yr old girl she worry's me

 

[hossua]

sparky....those look so good!
I always wanted to them a go but I have no idea how to eat those little bastards!
I'll try to crack them like little lobsters and make an ass of myself.

kids....I have a 7yr old and he's my official grainmaster.
I prepare each recipe the night before and weigh the grain out into 5gallon pails. come brewday while i'm starting the keggles he dumps the the grain into the hopper and turns the beast on. Later in the day he is johnny on the spot for the hop additions.

When I was a kid we used to have a huge family vacation down to the current river. Always stayed at Acre's Ferry (it's closed now, DAMNIT). We always collected a bunch of crawdads for a big boil, the first few years we went those damned things were half the size of lobsters! Man, youth is wasted on the young. I find myself constantly rediscovering things from my youth and wondering just how in the hell I didn't fully appreciate it at the time.

 

[IrregularPulse]

thought I'd add some brewing-with-kids pics...

Gees, make the guy with the infant sit by himself! Did the kid need a new diaper or what?!

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Gees, make the guy with the infant sit by himself! Did the kid need a new diaper or what?!

LOL never noticed that, but actually my old man's sitting back there chatting with him.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

sparky....those look so good!
I always wanted to give them a go but I have no idea how to eat those little bastards!
I'll try to crack them like little lobsters and make an ass of myself.

Nah, it's easy. You break the tail off, and eat the meat like a shrimp. That's the good part and it's worth the effort if they're big enough. Sucking the head is optional in my opinion, however, to others even suggesting that you may skip this part of the ritual is heresy!

 

[bernerbrau]

Huh. So I come into a thread called "Brewing with kids?", and the first thing I read is this:

I have no idea how to eat those little bastards!

What kind of forum is this anyhow?!!

 

[Bopper]

Huh. So I come into a thread called "Brewing with kids?", and the first thing I read is this:

What kind of forum is this anyhow?!!

LMFAO - Now that is some funny ****