About

Beta Test Brewing Company is my (Jason Hancock) home brewery.

Shortly after college one of my buddies got a homebrewing kit and started brewing occasionally. I thought it would be a lot of fun to try it myself, but never got around to taking the plunge. For Christmas 2012, I received a 1 gallon Brooklyn Brewshop all grain IPA kit from my wife and my mother-in-law purchased a five gallon extract IPA kit. With my birthday being in January, I quickly read up on what equipment I would need to make the five gallon batch and was able to acquire most of the gear.

I brewed both kits. I really liked how even though the all grain one gallon kit was more work than the extract kit, it felt like I was a real brewer. I read up on all grain brewing and started piecing together a five gallon all grain brewery. By June I had acquired everything I thought I might need to brew all grain. I picked out a simple recipe for a cream ale (I used Midwest's Liberty Cream Ale as a base recipe, then decided to add some maple syrup to boost the ABV a little and hopefully turn out something like Granville Island's Maple Cream Ale - one of the few beers my wife will drink). I brewed this on my stovetop in my kitchen (she was not pleased). While the beer didn't turn out exactly like I had envisioned, I learned a lot in the process and so began my journey.

I joined a local homebrew club to learn more about brewing and get some feedback on my beers. My cream ale was well received despite not really being to style.

I started to formulate a plan to build out my brewery. First, I needed to move my operation outside, so I purchased a natural gas burner. Then, I built a counter flow chiller because I found my immersion chiller wasn't cutting it. I then added a pump, camlocks, grain mill, and finally built a brew stand.

I started entering competitions and have had some success. See the awards page for more details.

I'm now in the midst of designing a ten gallon gas and electric HERMS system and one day dream about owning my own brewery (somewhere in the 7 to 15 BBL brewhouse range).