I started home brewing in the winter of 2008. I had been into craft beer for about three years at that time, and in those days anything that wasn’t lite lager was declared groundbreaking and delicious, at least to me. I bought a kit from Northern Brewer, like nearly everyone in the midwest did at that time, and started with extract batches and fermenting inside plastic buckets in the closet. I made a lot of mistakes early on, and even poured more than a few batches straight down the drain. Bigger, bolder, hoppier, crazier – those were the mantras in my view at that time. By 2011 I was in a local home brew club and learning at an exponential rate from guys who had been at it since the early 1990s. The club hosted at member’s houses on a rotating basis, and after having been in the club about 12 months, it was my turn. One of the most respected guys in the club, who went on to co-found Tighthead Brewing, said of one of my beers on tap, “very quaffable”. In my mind, I had achieved greatness, which meant it was time to get cocky. I decided to brew a massive imperial stout, and name it after my folks who are themselves huge beer geeks. About 14 hours after pitching the yeast, the krausen blew the lid off my pathetic plastic fermenter and covered the entire closet in yeast and partially fermented beer. It was great!

If I’m being honest with myself, that first batch Mom & Dad in 2011 probably wasn’t very good. It certainly didn’t have any major flaws, but it was big and pitch black and boozy and everyone who tried it said they loved it, and some of them might have even been telling the truth. But I think it was the presentation that really wow’d people, and after that reception it became holiday tradition. 

2021 is the tenth year anniversary of that first Mom & Dad, but it’s really only the 8th batch – I skipped two years while living in China. By now I have precision fermentation temperature control inside stainless steel fermenters, build the mineral profile from scratch with DI water, and really have dialed in how to successfully make big beers. And while in 2011 I brewed five gallons, bottled four gallons (yeast explosion loss) and handed it out to local friends, now I brew and bottle ten gallons and ship it to eight different states all over the country. I think maybe the absolute pinnacle of Mom & Dad was in 2015, when while a member of different home brew club, I along with several other brewers brewed up sixty gallons of imperial stout and aged it in a full sized oak barrel. Banner year for sure. Although sometimes it’s just fine fresh, but two or three years down the line, it’s amazing so maybe this year will be a banner year too. I’ve tried it, and I think it’s quite good, but then again, by this point in my life I’ve tried all the “best of the best” of most styles so it’s hard to really wow even myself anymore. I’m really bringing it home here at the end, aren’t I? Good thing I didn’t make this hobby into a job. “Welcome to Klaserhausen, where our best beer was made in 2015, though some would say today it’s still very quaffable”.