Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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That’s Mr. Beer To You, Pal

Posted Nov 3, 2005 by Jeff Houck

Updated Nov 3, 2005 at 04:24 PM

Gizmodo, the gadget site, reminds us that fall is a perfect time to break out the homebrewing beer kit.

Their fave model: Mr. Beer.

Their reason:

“Mr. Beer is just about the easiest way to get a few gallons of good beer there is. Aside from going to the store, that is. Plus, you can make a theme song out of the name: “Mr. Beer, that’s my name. That name again is Mr. Beer!”

The product’s tag line hooked us: “Playstation for grownups.”

We ran a story in May about home wine makers around Tampa Bay.

There are plenty of sources to get information on homemade beer and wine making:

Classes:
The Beer and WineMaker’s Pantry, 9200 66th St. N., Pinellas Park, offers a free class most Saturdays at noon (this week is a beermaking class, however). The pantry’s Internet site is www.beerandwinemaking.com.

Internet:
WineExpert.com , a manufacturer of premium wine kits, offers information in English and French.

Here are some other links for the brewtastically uninitiated to get started:

Home Brew Mart

Strange Brew

Cookbooks:
Check out “The Home Winemaker’s Companion, Secrets, Recipes, and Know-How for Making 115 Great-Tasting Wines,” by Gene Spaziani, past president of the American Wine Society (Storey Books, $18.95).

Beginners will like “Enjoy Home Winemaking,” by Robert and Eileen Frishman (Crosby and Baker Books, $1.99) Another is “Techniques and Home Winemaking,” by Daniel Pambianchi (Vehicule, $25).