National Homebrew Day

Photo c/o miami-homebrew.org

I'm not really a consumer of liquor, wine, and alcoholic drinks.  If I was made to choose, I'd go for a small bit of wine, red or white, doesn't really matter, and perhaps a bottle or half of beer.  I never really acquired the taste for drinking.  It was not that we (my three brothers) were prohibited or prevented from doing so.  We just didn't have the experience.  Growing up in Zamboanga, I saw how folks would gather coconuts from our farm and turn them into tuba (coconut wine).

That was the closest I got to home-brewing, until now, when I moved to Aotearoa New Zealand.  I know of some mates who are into home-brewing of their beers into different flavors: mango, orange, fejioa, kiwi, apple, and many others.  They're connoisseurs who'd rather brew their own instead of buying them.  Home brew kits are readily available for purchase and my mates said they're relatively easy to follow.  Of course, the real and main ingredient in home-brewing would be the passion to do it.  For some, it started as a hobby, which eventually turned into a business.

The study entitled New Zealand Craft Beer Industry made by the ANZ Bank in 2014, summarized that while beer consumption overall was decreasing, the craft beer segment was growing.  And although only 2% of beer sales is attributed to craft beer, it is the fastest growing segment of the brewing industry.

Further evidence of the significance of this market was shown in the article Home brewing popularity soars on the Stuff NZ website it was estimated that "home brew" was searched about 4,000 times per week on TradeMe.  In the same article it mentioned that sales were up 18% in, while there was a 63% jump in listings in 2015.  It seemed like quite a number of people were doing their online research before engaging in this activity.

Now, there's even the Home Brew Crew, a New Zealand hip-hop group.  But that's another story!