Historically, the consumption of alcohol has been spun as a vice, at least in American culture. Undoubtedly influenced by puritanical perspectives, even occasional imbibing by responsible adults is viewed by some as an ineffectively weak form of self-treatment for deeper emotional issues. And that’s just the drinking part. Homebrewing brings on a whole new slew of concerns.
Is that even legal? Are you making meth? You’re going to drink all of that? You let your kids help you make beer?
Just like any other hobby, homebrewing serves as a creative outlet into which many people invest copious amounts of time and money, all for the sake of fun. We hangout with other brewers, join clubs, go to conferences, and some of us even use it as a way to connect with and teach our kids. However, unlike most other hobbies, ours involves alcohol, which requires some consideration.
Given the focus of today’s Brü’s Views, I wanted to make sure the guest was a homebrewer with extensive parental experience and could think of no one better than the Homebrew Dad himself, Olan Suddeth. Reigning from the state of Alabama, Olan and his wife married 21 years ago and immediately started having kids, 
their 7th born last year around the time their oldest was moving out. In addition to his role as super awesome dad, Olan is deeply invested in the online homebrewing community and runs the Brew United website, a fantastic resource for brewing calculators, recipes, and discussion. Thanks to Olan for sharing his thoughts on brewing with kids!
On Brewing With Kids
| OLAN SUDDETH |
When Marshall first asked me to do an article on brewing with kids, my knee jerk reaction was to revert to lazy “dad jokes” questioning the relative merits of adding kids to the mash versus, say, using them as a post-boil addition. Despite the fact that he is far too polite to say so, however, I’m pretty sure that the Brulosopher was instead hoping for me to discuss how my brewing hobby is impacted by having kids, or perhaps how I still manage to find time to brew despite my sizeable brood.
At the risk of kicking a few philosophical wasp nests, I want to come out and say that I come from an extremely conservative, religious background in one of the most conservative states in America. As a matter of fact, Alabama was the very last state to vote to legalize homebrewing (though we did enact our law in time to beat Mississippi!); in my state, we literally dealt with multiple versions of “won’t someone think of the children?” as arguments against the legalization of our hobby. How, then, could I justify the pursuit of such a wicked activity, what with all the impressionable young minds in my home?
Go ahead and clutch your pearls, but I’m a firm believer that children are not actually harmed by witnessing the consumption of alcohol. Understand, I am a very moderate drinker – typically, I weigh in at around three to four beers per week – but I believe that I am teaching my children to respect alcohol though the responsible use of it.
We regularly have discussions on how Dad limits himself to one, perhaps two beers – and never when he will be driving. We talk about how a little alcohol can make you feel happy, but how too much can make you quite sick, and how it can dull your reflexes and judgement – and thus, how it’s dangerous and foolish to drink and drive. My kids understand that alcohol is not appropriate for children, but I make it a point to be open about it, to answer any questions that they might have; as a result, they don’t view alcohol with the mystery or taboo factors that many kids do.
I often read accounts of other brewers that complain how they can’t brew now that they have kids; I say they are doing it wrong! Rather than demand alone time, I get my kids involved. I currently have four helpers (ages two through eight) that enjoy stirring the mash, making hop additions, and checking for airlock activity. Odds are that your kids just want to spend time with you; why not kill two birds with one stone?
Once they are invested in the creation process, I find that my kids are interested in the end result (even if they can’t drink it). They enjoy comparing the colors of various beers, and they all demand to smell them when I pour a glass – and surprisingly, they have gotten pretty decent at picking out various hop characteristics (floral, fruity, spicy, etc). I do give single sip samples of every beer that I brew to my two older kids (teenagers); one day, they will be old enough, and we will perhaps share some joint brew days.
More importantly, I believe that my approach is helping to reduce the chances that my kids will misuse alcohol. My oldest son is about to go off to college, but I’m honestly not too worried about him binge drinking or the like; he’s had chances to get into alcohol at a local party or two, but without that “taboo factor”, he apparently wasn’t particularly tempted.
Of course, there are no guarantees that they still won’t do something stupid; we’ve all been young and dumb (and most of us still do dumb things from time to time, regardless of our age). With that being said, I feel like equipping them with the data needed to make smart decisions can only increase the chances that my kids will do just that. And if doing so gets them involved in my favorite hobby, and perhaps lays the foundation for an activity that we can share throughout our lives… well, I fail to see a downside to that.
| MALCOLM FRAZER |
I just don’t feel kids should be included in the manufacturing or even the company of adults consuming alcohol. Come on! Won’t someone think of the children!? It’s inappropriate and there is nothing for them to garner from the experience except for needless exposé to the sinful culture of that poisonous liquid. It’s too late for me. I was raised in a house where alcohol was paid very little mind. With an English father and a liberal-minded mother, beer, wine, and liquor were ubiquitous. At family events or picnics, at the dinner table, they cooked with it, toasted to good times with it, and then I went into the Navy… and we drank like ourselves.
First of all, kids are too young to start learning this stuff.
Brewing is me time, not for father and daughter bonding. They don’t even like it. What are they going to learn? Counting, stirring, sorting, flavors, measuring, a love of science and art, safety, taking directions, listening skills? Those are of no benefit to yingins. Childhood is a time for dolls, cars, coloring, and maybe some puzzles.
Some of the ancillary tasks are mindnumbing and have no overlap with skills useful for anything other than making home-drank booze. And I have girls! They have no role models to look up to. As James Brown said, “It’s a Man’s World.”
| MARSHALL SCHOTT |
I initially intended to address something that’s been on my mind for awhile when it comes to being a brewer who has kids. I’d already published a sentimental piece on balancing homebrewing with having a family and thought I’d take this opportunity to discuss a more sensitive topic, one I rarely see come up in homebrewing circles. But after consulting with the contributors and, more importantly my wife, I realized I was being perhaps a tad too optimistic and decided to revert to something safer. Because people who disagree sometimes do weird shit. Anyways…
I have absolutely no issue whatsoever involving my kids in all aspects of my hobby, from lighting the flame and milling the grain to cleaning fermentors and tagging along when I go to club meetings. In fact, I appreciate and encourage it!
There seems to be a swath of the populace that views the involvement of children in anything that goes against their own beliefs as bad, and hence for those who believe alcohol is perilous, the fact I allow my kids to help me make beer means I am bad. And obviously, my kids are doomed.
I suppose I can relate with this sentiment on some level.There are definitely things I see other parents do that I completely disagree with, and as hard as I try not to judge them, sometimes it feels impossible.
In my mind, there’s a very distinct difference between the uninformed dad pounding 40’s of Mickey’s with his teenager under the self-serving delusion that doing so decreases their risk of alcoholism, and the mother who involves her kiddo in her homebrewing hobby with the goal of encouraging interest in creativity and science. A vast chasm exists between the focus of the former (alcohol) and the intentions of the latter (learning & appreciation). To assume they’re one in the same, to me, is rather close-minded.
The environment I was raised in for much of my childhood treated alcohol as a medicine taken to make life easier, and I had only these early experiences to rely on when alcohol came into the picture as a teenager. It wasn’t until my junior year in college that I even considered beer as being more than just an inebriant and adopted a perspective the earlier me couldn’t fathom. But that old shit is ingrained and occasionally pops into the picture without any apparent volition; it’s only after I notice what’s going on that I’m able to do anything about it. I don’t want this for my kids. And so, very consciously, I’ve chosen a different path that I hope leaves Hazel, Roscoe, and Olive ingrained with a healthier view of beer/alcohol than I have.
I love that my kids enjoy helping me brew. I love that they’re learning about science in an applicable and fascinating way. I love that in their world, adults consume alcohol responsibly. I love that they’re developing an appreciation for brewing and beer at such a young age. Whether working on cars, baking, photography, or brewing, our children learn from us what’s important, and this goes far beyond the obvious context of what we’re doing– engaging in activities that make us happy and bring fulfillment in this momentary blip we call life.
I love my kids. They mean the world to me and I would do nothing to harm them (well, maybe not nothing). The cynics may view this piece as a rationalization of my behavior, a way for me to justify doing something “we all know is bad.” To be honest, having been raised in a culture with such puritanical perspectives on alcohol, there’s probably some truth to that. Either way, I do my thing and you do your thing…
| RAY FOUND |
I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to brewing with kids, in the specific sense, I don’t. My kids are 2 and nearing 6, and while Addi, my eldest, is perfectly 
happy to hang out with Dad and chit-chat for hours while I take care of what needs to be tended to, she doesn’t seem to go anywhere or do anything these days without her little brother, Cole, following her around.
And Cole is a different story.
He’s the kid that gave himself second-degree burns by grabbing the back of the hot BBQ not 30 seconds after being admonished not to touch the BBQ because it was hot and it would burn him. He’s the proverbial bull in a China shop, and if not watched, he’s doing damage to himself and/or his surroundings. On the bright side, he does seem to have developed a healthy fear/respect for the BBQ.
So for me, brewing with kids isn’t so much about actually brewing with them, but rather being a father who brews. My hope is that my kids come to see beer and alcohol in an utterly un-mysterious sense. It is just a part of everyday life– our kids see their parents often enjoying a beer together with a meal, or while tooling around doing yard work. They see a father who spends an inordinate amount of his free time making beer, playing with brewing equipment, writing about beer. What our kids don’t see are parents that get shitfaced and make bad decisions, or drive home after having 5 drinks. My hope is that on some level, my kids pick up on my wife’s and my cues, such as when we decide which of us is driving and which of us gets drink more before having that second beer at the in-laws house . This type of vicarious learning seems like the most natural and built-in method for learning good habits without ever being directly “told.”
There’s also been some other neat little lessons along the way. Being a brewer, I always have whole grains of barley and wheat malt around, which has led to lessons about things like how bread is made where I walk them through the process of how whole grains, which they get to hold in their hands and even taste, is ground to flour, mixed with water and yeast (similar to what daddy uses for beer), and made into delicious edibles. My hope is that my kids will arrive at the understanding that beer, bread, and pizza dough are all, at least on some level, the same thing. Moreover, my experimental bent with brewing has allowed me to share with Addi my love for science and understanding, and hopefully instill some critical thinking along the way.
I like to think of myself as a good parent and it is my hope that having a father who brews will instill in my children a healthy relationship with alcohol, do-it-yourself gusto, scientific curiosity, and an interest in fulfilling hobbies.
| MATT WALDRON |
It is recommend adding children under 3 years of age at 0.05 ppm, between 3-5 years of age at 0.075 ppm, after 5 they are no longer sweet enough and will over bitter or (in the case of a spoiled childe) surely sour thy brew.
~Jonathan Swift on Home Brewing ~
Wait, brewing with them in the house. OK, well, let’s take a modern (and actual) look at it from a parenting point of view. If you, like me, believe in your household that consuming beer is OK for adults and that our hobby isn’t something to hide from the sensitive eyes of children (then you probably wouldn’t be reading this) I think it is important to handle it out in the open and use it to set a good example.
That does not mean just teaching things like measurements, weights, cleaning up – or for your advanced kids – basics of fermentation science, application of heat, scientific note keeping, etc. – but an example of how to behave in the real world. I, like me, you might quickly and easily fall into swearing at your gear if your temper fails, or skipping steps when you’re tired, not cleaning/organizing properly or not thanking those in the house that help then you, like me, are setting a bad example. It’s one thing if it’s just you and the significant other, it’s another if you have a child in the house. Just like the time my daughter repeated that swear word I let go in traffic when we finally got to grandma’s house, I believe she’ll observe and learn from my work practices just being in the house while I ply my favorite hobby. “Do as I say, not as I do” is a great mantra for a disciplinarian parent, but I’d bet a frosty keg of homebrew that I won’t find a significant number of developmental psychologists that agree children learn that way. I believe I have to put on my practical scientist hat when I brew with my daughter in the house. I have to be methodical, be positive, be thorough, be calm and creative in problem solving if that is what I want to see in her. I say talk to them about why, answer all their questions patiently, include them in the process. They’ll glow when your friends and family love the beer just like you do, and they’ll experience that pride in craftsmanship. If my kid thinks I got there watching me crash around, leave a mess and being a general curmudgeon or worse, she’ll think that is how things get done.
Worried about discussing alcohol and its effects with kids? I was to. But the thing is, they’ll ask about what they don’t understand when they are at a point of needing to understand it. I think this is why continental European’s have less issues with underage alcohol abuse. It’s done around the family, discussed, and most importantly, children observe proper/responsible behavior and maybe see how people react with its not handled well.
Don’t want to scare you, but I can tell you many stories of my foibles manifesting in the habits of my daughter. Nothing wants to make me turn my brew gear into a time machine and go back and fix things more. I can redo a beer, I can’t redo her development.
If not that, turn your ginger children into a sour gruit.
TL/DR: “No matter what I decide to do with my kids in brewing, I know they’re watching me and I’m training them anyway.”
| JAKE HUOLIHAN |
I’ve never had kids. Up until the moment my wife screamed upstairs one morning exclaiming we were pregnant, I’d never considered what my life would be like as a parent. To be honest, I’m mortified of what raising a child means and what my lifestyle constitutes to that.
Will I stop brewing when I have a kid? No, but as I sit here as a husband to a pregnant wife I can’t help but be afraid of what it means for my hobby. While I love brewing, the most important thing in my life is obviously not brewing. Since being pregnant my wife has not been able to drink. Me being a prolific homebrewer means there are times when I’m drunk and she is so far from that. I hate it! Drinking beer is awesome, the shame of becoming drunk in the presence of my sober wife is really awkward. If you’re around someone who is sober 100% of the time while you’re drunk a portion of this time, there are bound to be some embarrassing scenarios. I grew up in a German family and beer was always around at every family function. While I can’t really provide any answers in terms of how that translates to having kids, as a millennial who grew up through the DARE program, I can’t help but be worried about what this might mean to my kids.
As a parent, will I be fucking up my kid by being a homebrewer? Are my kids going to start sneaking pulls from my keezer in middle school (I know I would have)? Am I just perpetuating a culture of alcoholism to my kids by focusing a decent portion of my life to the production of beer? I don’t know. I do know that by us becoming pregnant, I’m thinking a lot more about it. I listened to Loveline a lot as a teenager, and one thing Dr. Drew always said was, “when you become a parent you give up all rights to yourself.” Now that I’m having a kid, does that mean I’ve remitted my rights to homebrewing?
There are many examples of fathers that homebrew, but does that translate to me, and do their experiences mean anything to me? I really don’t know. I do know that I’m going to do everything in my power to be a responsible parent. I grew up with parents who didn’t drink in our house. I respect the hell out of my parents for choosing to shield my brother and I from what they considered poor life choices. Both my brother and I now drink, we will both surely drink in front of our kids, and I will certainly brew in front of my kids. Homebrewers often get a rap of being irresponsible drunks, while there are times I’ve definitely fallen into this category, having a kid on the way, I’ve thought about this a ton. This topic may be controversial, but I for one will continue to homebrew and drink responsibly. While I don’t think there are any easy answers to this topic, I think it needs to be discussed. Most European cultures expose their children to alcohol at a much younger age than we do in America. I think it’s important to ensure responsibility in any facet involving alcohol and that’s what I plan on doing. So while I cannot comment just yet on being a homebrewer with kids, I can say that it is something very much on my mind, and something I plan to approach with tact and discipline. Life involves growing up, every aspect of it, and having kids while trying to maintain your hobbies is an ever evolving part of life. I cannot yet comment on my success in doing so, but I plan to take the advice of those who’ve done it before me and try my damn hardest at making sure I do it right.
That’s what we think about brewing with kids, how about you? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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24 thoughts on “Brü’s Views w/ Olan Suddeth | On Brewing With Kids”
With 2 college students and one teenager still in high school, I can faithfully report that you reap what you sow. Beer and brewing were always Dad’s thing. Minimal interest from the kids. (I think having them help me pick hops at an early age may have had something to do with that.) I would often have a beer while I was cooking dinner. When the kids expressed interest in my beers, I would let them have a sip. Often I would be drinking an IPA or a sour. They were typically not impressed. I have always been upfront with my kids, sharing my own life experiences to give them the background information, the benefit of my experiences and consequences, in order to make their own decisions. So far, all of my children do not see binge drinking as a goal or a path to a goal.
I think the most important advice I can give you is, always be responsible with alcohol and your drinking. They should never see you fucked up. They will learn from you. Your relationship with alcohol will be their relationship with alcohol. Of course, this is Nurture vs. Nature. If their nature, their genetics, give them a predisposition to alcoholism, well, that is another kettle of fish. But otherwise, you will reap what you sow.
PS. My daughter was able to school some upperclassmen pounding IPAs on styles!
Awesome!!
Very good point, John. Kids learn behavior by observing us, not by what you we “tell” them to learn.
My biggest issue on brewing/kids has been the inability to have a large block of time free. I have ended up being able to break the process into tasks with variable downtime between them:
-prep night before
-set mash heater, do something else for an hour or two.
-mash in, do something else for as long as desired — waiting overnight won’t even hurt.
-drain and bring to stable boil, add hops weight calculated for target IBU at 1 hour, do something else for an hour.
-hop stand, do something else for a half hour,
etc.
This article is important to me because I now have a 1 year old and have thought about this a good bit. I am also from Alabama and grew up in a religious household. Not overly religious, in fact my parents are fairly liberal about a lot of issues now, but growing up, there was no alcohol in the house. My wife’s parents are still very conservative, but we can at least discuss homebrewing to a certain extent. Unfortunately they are still under the impression that a>0=d, where a=alcohol and d=drunk.
I’ve moved from an outdoor 3 vessel system to an indoor 3.25 gallon BIAB setup to be closer to my girl while I brew. I get more complaints about messy kitchens, but I can pay more attention to her while upstairs.
As of right now, I too am going to treat it as a science experiment when she’s old enough to talk about it; because in reality, it is. Any hobby where you are using pH meters, scales, acids, flasks, hydrometers, thermometers, etc. is scientific. I am an engineer, so science is important to me, and I would be stressing it whether I was a homebrewer or not.
Really it’s not my daughter, or me, I worry about, but how other parents/teachers/kids react to the hobby. I don’t care what others think about me, but I don’t want my daughter to not have friends over because the kids parents think their dad is an alcoholic. That’s the kind of questions that pop up in my mind.
I do think having them around alcohol takes the taboo of it away. Like I said before, I grew up in a no-alcohol household, didn’t drink in high school, and yet I could out drink all my friends by sophomore year (and I did…..every Thursday, Friday, Saturday). It wasn’t till the end of grad school where I started to appreciate good beer. I don’t know if being around alcohol more would have prevented binge drinking, but it’s something else I think about.
We all have stories about which kid grew up around alcohol, which kid didn’t, who succeeded and who became an alcoholic. In the end, you try and educate your child as best you can about everything; we just have the additional task of alcohol production and responsibility. You do the best you can, prepare them, and hope that they turn out fine.
I grew up in Switzerland, where alcohol consumption by the children was the parents’ business. This environment encourages *responsibility.* Where 16 year olds are simply banned from consuming alcohol, and defined as criminals if they do, it only denies them the opportunity to develop responsible habits. Practice makes perfect. Use it or lose it. Prohibition never really ended; it was only modified, and the consequences are all around us in the full light of day.
In the US you can get in serious trouble for even having alcohol in your car in the parking lot at my work place, a nuclear facility. In Sweden I was offered a “small beer” (low alcohol 4.0%) by the plant manager at their on site lunch room. They also served lower alcohol wines for lunch (8% vs 10-14%). Inside a nuke power plant.
My dad has always appreciated good beer, and when I was in high school he would talk about appreciating beer for it’s quality rather than a way of getting drunk. We had beers together a few times before I left home. When he and my mom separated, he always had my favorite (Guinness, at the time) in the fridge at his apartment. The whole point was to instill a respect for the beverage. These lessons have served me well.
Another great post. I have 3 daughters, all are college age, or grown now. They helped me stir, and add hops and bottle. None of them have chosen to be “party girls” in their college years. Do they drink? I’m sure they do sometimes, hey they’re in college. Do we see any signs that they drink to excess? No. I think brewing taught them a healthy respect for a couple of things. First off, they saw first hand the benefits of having a hobby. All of the friendship, creative accomplishment, pride, camaraderie, and support that has come from the home brew community during my many ups and downs. This has been the real greatest benefit. Second, they learned. My daughters know how many liters are in a gallon, pints in a quart, and grams in an ounce. They know that yeast is alive. They know that enzymes are responsible for turning starch into sugar. Third, they saw a father who is nearly obsessed with beer live his life with out being a drunk, or an alcoholic. They learned it is their choice. And that they don’t have to surrender that choice. You can love beer, wine, or spirits with out becoming enslaved to them. They learned a healthy respect for alcohol. ( Perhaps most importantly they learned how to wash, rinse, fill and cap bottles… damn I miss that)
My advice include your kids in your brewing, And never let your love of brewing become an excuse for modeling bad behavior as acceptable to your children.
I have two kids who are 8 and 11. Typically their involvement with my brewing hobby is to pull out a can of air freshener whenever I’m brewing inside the house and give me grief when I have a beer or two.
I always give them the opportunity to join me during brew day but most of the time they get bored after the first 15 minutes and wander off to do something more fun. As for drinking I may have a beer a day with the rest of my stock being shared among friends and family. Whenever they get after me for having a beer (“Daddy! Drinking is bad!”) I always give them the talk about moderation and being responsible.
So far they have zero interest in beer or drinking.
But in preparation for the teens and Twenties I’m figuring out a way to keep inventory of my beer stash.
Out of curiosity, where do you think they got the idea that “beer is bad”? Maybe teachers at school, or TV? Its just interesting that children of a home brewer see beer drinking as a negative thing… Our culture likes to believe that things are black and white (drinking is BAD, church is GOOD), and rules and choices should be the same for everybody, but as most of us realize there are many shades of gray (50 i believe 🙂 ). My sister has just recently been hospitalized with liver failure due to alcohol abuse, so its been interesting to explain to my kids why its OK for me to drink beer and not her… Of course she was a box wine and hard liquor kind of drinker, so her drinking wasn’t for the taste enjoyment… Personally I think people do more harm to their kids teaching them that fast food is OK to eat 5 days a week than letting them see the process of brewing and enjoying beer!
I know the school here has done a fine job with anti-drug/alcohol abuse education (Which I’m quite happy about), so I believe a lot of the comments stem from those conversations at school. They’re also 8 and 11 so I’m not too worried about their opinions/viewpoints as I’m sure those will change over time.
In the meantime, I’ll just drink responsibly around them and be a decent role model when I can.
I have a 12 year old and a 14 year old son. I brewed before they were born and stopped for a LONG time while they were little (more of a time concern than anything). Keeping in mind that Dad has always been the cook in the family; my boys both help me brew and see this as simply an extension of the creativity outlet that is my cooking. When their friends or their parents ask about it – my boys can both discuss what we’re doing on a scientific level and both can confidently state “it’s not beer yet – it hasn’t fermented.”
I view brewing as a skill to be passed on. Much like cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, firearms safety, etc. That is part of my job as a dad and a parent: To one day work myself out of a job.
That said – I completely agree with other views here about being cognizant of my own behavior while drinking. Kids will humble you like that!
I learned how to homebrew from my Dad (he really got into the hobby when I was in high school), and our phone calls and emails about brewing are always a highlight. My own three-year-old is an awesome brewers’ assistant, and loves to help measure and mill the grains or water the hop plants in the backyard. We have a lot of fun brewing together, even if he’s just sitting in a chair next to me and coloring while we wait for the mash to finish. These are solid memories in the making–certainly for me, and hopefully for him too.
Echoing comments above, brewing since my son arrived has taught some efficiency and also switched up my brewing schedule a bit. We might mill grains ahead of time, or I might mash in right as he’s getting ready for bed (or start brewing early in the morning before he wakes up). We also talk about safety — he knows to stay well clear of the burner, for instance, and I am definitely more conscious of keeping things safe and tidy. And, my son knows that beer is something grown-ups enjoy, and that they best enjoy in moderation.
So, a solid thumbs-up to brewing with kids!
Thanks for the interesting read. This was a timely article for me- my wife is pregnant, and I’ve had many of these same questions running through my mind recently. Hearing everyone’s experiences here is really helpful- I was raised Mormon which meant I had absolutely no exposure to alcohol growing up (other than the constant vilification of it to justify of life of no booze) until I had the balls to unplug myself from Mormonism in my twenties. I was then forced to figure out on my own what responsible alcohol use was, and now, how I could teach that to children.
I will definitely continue to homebrew and imbibe as my children grown. I believe showing children what a responsible and healthy relationship with alcohol is through my example is a superior approach to teaching children to vilify and abstain from booze. I believe doing so will decrease the likelihood of producing a human that develops a destructive and addictive habit. However, this is still just a belief. I don’t know that this is the superior approach. I appreciate everyone’s anecdotes and experiences which support the notion that this is the superior approach, but I’m left wondering if these anecdotes are being used to confirm our bias- that we can enjoy this hobby and still raise healthy children. Are we just cherry picking examples which confirm what we’ve done/wanted to do? Are we consciously (and even subconsciously) overlooking the examples which suggest the opposite? The skeptic in me wants data! That said, is anyone familiar with research on the topic that could provide some objectivity to the approach of responsible exposure vs. abstinence? Thanks in advance!
My college age child got me into homebrewing after years of me talking about it. I have enjoyed my many hours with my son brewing some great beer and some strange ones as the need to explore different tastes lies strictly with my son,
Some lovely thoughts here, guys, and on an issue that’s close to my heart. I too was rather worried about ‘what people would think’, but on the whole people aren’t bothered. Of course, there’s a slightly different attitude to home brewing in the UK.
I brew with my two year old, and it’s given us some really lovely experiences, not to mention learning opportunities. In fact, I recently wrote about our brew days here: http://www.beardedhousewife.co.uk/?p=23 although it’s more pitched towards fellow parents than fellow brewers.
My son used to love helping me fill bottles and was very helpful when he was little.
I started home brewing about 35 years ago. All my children are now 30 +. At various stages of their lives the “helped” me brew. In fact all of them have fond memories of helping me cap beer bottles. They would count out the caps and put them on the capper magnet. The whole process lead to discussions on magnetism ,weights and measures etc.
i even went to one of my daughters show and tell with a small bottle of fermenting beer and we discussed how yeast worked etc.
All of my children are moderate drinks who appreciate good beer although not all of them drink. I, like many of the others,am originally from England so I think our attitude to drinking is different in that we accept and perhaps expect our children to try alcohol and some time in their life and I by de-mystifying the whole thing gives them a better understanding of the pros and cons of alcohol use
OK, I have almost 30 years in k-12 education and have two, twenty-something kids of my own who enjoy good, quality beer. My two cents.
First off, this is an incredibly complex issue. A handful of comments can’t do it justice. Not all children are the same and not all family dynamics are similar. That being said, including your children in this particular hobby, in my opinion, does go a long way in fostering a mature “relationship” with alcohol for them in the future. Being open and honest with your children about the product you are making – its effects, both positive and negative, is great. But, demonstrating a mature, responsible use of said product goes so much further. I have almost three decades worth of stories from parents and guardians who honestly believed that the, “Do as I say, not as I do” mode of parenting would work for them only to be crushed when their child or children ended up in an addiction program or worse. Does including your kids in your brewing hobby give you a 100% assurance they will never make dumb choices? Absolutely not. They’re kids. That’s what they do. There are no guarantees in life. But, the fact that you are not treating alcohol like some all powerful boogey man lessens its desirability. The demonization of anything by a parent or guardian can make that particular object a point of obsession for some children/young adults – be it alcohol, a love interest…
Also, the bonds that are created by shared endeavors are strong ones. If you are involving your kids in brewing, you probably are involving them in many other aspects of your life. My gut says you have already gone a long way in creating a strong child-parent bond that will help you weather the inevitable ups and downs of life.
One other note, would we be as concerned if the topic were about parents involving their children in modifying cars?
Malcolm-
The military view on alcohol is a fickle one. I spent 8 years either shooting or directing fire for some big-ass pieces of artillery and I found it odd that at the age of 18, while I was capable of killing and/or maiming thousands of people at the push of a button I was somehow not responsible enough to have a beer.
Hello Pablo (et al),
Well put. There is. It a cookie.cutter version of what works for all situations and all child/ parent dynamics.
I had a rather lengthy two paragraphs that I ended up NOT including as it was sounding g too Dr. Phil even after several rewrites. Short version – fire, hot liquids, glass, heavy shite, chemicals, acids, oh my. Know your kids. Set limits. Teach them to respect the potential of the aforementioned items – do so at your own risk.
My first daughter is amazingly disciplined, able to follow directions, and be careful (as we see in the bottle sorting). 2nd daughter is a whirling dervish demon baby of destruction. If they ever name a storm “Kiera” RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. They cannot perform the same tasks at the same age. They can each perform different activities well.
Continued:
Also, I was starting up Nuclear Reactors for the Navy before I could drink. Others may actually fire and be fired upon… and potentially pay the ultimate price before being to have alcohol.
Just seemed fitting to write on Memorial Day weekend.
I have four daughters (oldest is 7, youngest is 18 months) and they’re absolutely involved and aware of what’s going on with my hobby. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I typically brew in the evenings, and get the mash going before the kids go to bed. They can help add the grains, stir the mash or watch/check temperatures. They love to smell the mash and see it and comment on the colors and aromas. Often I get the boil started when they go to bed, so they’re not all running around the burner and a hot pot. But they’re right back involved again checking the fermentation with me and helping me keg. And yes, every now and then I let them get a little “tongue taste” of what was made. No one’s getting a glass, or even a real sip, just a taste.
My kids have fully accepted the wonders and marvels of what dad makes and see it as just another beverage choice. As they get older, they’ll come to appreciate more of the etiquette surrounding beer or other alcohol consumption. For now, we’ve at least normalized what’s happening and that drinking isn’t some crazy taboo thing. Spending time in Europe while in college I realized the awesome social aspect surrounding beer, and the appreciation of truly good drink (the same way we savor excellent cuisine). THAT’S what I want to pass along to my kids.
Sounds very similar to my situation. I also brew with the girls, start in the evenings, and they typically off to bed when I’m getting done with the boil.
Woe betide, if I try to creep downstairs to check on a temp, gravity, pressure etc without the oldest chipmunking that she wants to come with me – which of course prompts the youngest to parrot a “me too” in the next highest octave. And a smile bubbles over me as I tell them to put on their lil pink boots.