From the Driveway to the Tap Room

September 15th. My birthday and the day I finally took the time to brew my first beer. 2025 was an exciting year that quickly bled into an even more adventurous 2026. I began with a small batch of extract beer making an IPA that was way to dark, but it was mine! Jump forward a year and I just picked up 8 crowlers of a brewery's recreation of something I made. It may not be a nationwide brewery, but I don't want to undersell it. My recipe made it to a brewery! A West Coast Pilsner.

This West Coast Pilsner had a lot of firsts attached to it. My first attempt at using my all-in-one Spike brewing system. My first attempt at an all-grain recipe, and it wasn't from a box, it was built out using Brewfather so it was custom to what I wanted. My fist attempt at lagering and dry hopping. And my first time winning a beer crafting award with the local club. It's hard to label anything perfect but when the expectations going in were to learn and you come away with something that gets elevated like this, well it's hard to not call it the perfect results.

So you may be wondering what even is a West Coast Pilsner? You may know a West Coast IPA and, if you like beer, most certainly know a Pilsner. Well the West Coast Pilsner is a marriage of the two. From the Pilsner you get a crisp, clean, and smooth profile due to the lagering process. The malts keep it light and low on sweetness. From the West Coast, you got a highlight of the hops. Think about citrus, pine, and tropic fruits. For my version of the recipe, I wanted to really feature a tropical, juicy, and citrus approach. To that goal, I highlighted Mosaic, Citra and Superdelic hops. Plus its just fun to say Superdelic. Keeping the goal in mind and what the style is, I landed on the name Tropic Crisp.

This beer will definitely see a return to my garage taps. Kegerator for now but a keezer is in the works! In the mean time you can check out the Stones Throw version in Little Rock. The key difference between my recipe and their final version is dropping the Superdelic for El Dorado. Simply because it's easier for a home brewer to get their hands on a couple ounces of the good stuff vs the quantity they needed for the brew.

Which brings us to those 8 crowlers in my fridge and why I brought them up in the first place. A year. That's all it took to go from sitting in my driveway trying to manage propane and malt extract syrups to now I can pick up a crowler of my beer at a commercial brewery. While I don't have any expectations of repeating that often, it's a good reminder of how quickly you can make a change in your life. If you've got a hobby you've been putting off, dust it off and give it a go. Who knows where you'll be at with it in just a year!