I’ve always enjoyed good wines, fine scotches, and bold craft beers. Under the 2016 Christmas Tree was a beer-making kit (thanks to my lovely wife Kim) so I was now committed to giving it a go. After the first brew, I was hooked and wanted more. Conveniently there was enough room at my office to set up a little brewery of sorts. My then zero balance credit card was exercised to its fullest potential and thus was acquired a beautiful 15gal 3 burner Blickmann Top Tier system. My sights were set for the next notch up “All-Grain brewing”. After a few ‘extract’ batches I started doing more All-Grain brews – a bit more work evolved but gives you maximum control over every step of the process. I use only all-natural ingredients, including the best grains and hops. It’s fun to tweak recipes and put my own take on popular recipes. I’ve also infused batches with Agave Tequila, and Booker’s Bourbon Whiskey with awesome results. In further experimentation, I have a couple of Whiskey Bourbon oak barrels as well to condition water and age beer.
I had a bit of fun designing and creating the AleByI logo. The end result represents a few things.
- Ale-By-I is an anagram for Bailey (me)
- Ale-By-I “is” Ale that I brew By Eye – adding and experimenting with different hops and styles.
- The eye in the logo is “The Eye of Horus” or the all-seeing eye. There are different meanings for the eye but the one that caught ‘my eye’ was “safety and health of the bearer and to provide wisdom and prosperity”. The Eye of Horus was believed to have healing and protective power – nice knowing when drinking beer.
The logo (above) and AleByI are registered trademarks. Making beer isn’t cheap when using all-natural ingredients, especially when infusing with select spirits. So to help offset the cost I built this website in hopes visitors might be encouraged to buy beer-related items. Your patronage is greatly appreciated.
Sept 2023 update:
In 2019 we retired, sold our home, and moved to Mexico where we resided for 3 years. Unless you are a commercial brewery it is nearly impossible to brew your own beers due to heavy import taxes and long delays in getting supplies. In 2023 we moved to Western Australia. With these limitations now removed I can once again delve into the hobby of brewing beer.
The older system was very difficult and cumbersome to manage, especially when brewing all-grains. After a 4 year hiatus, I quickly learned the equipment, technology, and software had changed considerably.
AleByI is now in full swing – doing strictly All-grain
Partial list:
Brewzilla gen4 (Wi-Fi monitoring)
RAPT Fermentation Chamber (Wi-Fi monitoring)
RAPT Pills (fermentation Wi-Fi monitoring)
Fermzilla All-Arounders (mostly for pressure fermentation)
4-tap Keggerator gen X.1
Frig
Cannular Kit (for beer canning)
Cheers to Craft Beers