Cullen Bennett
I started my first batch of beer when I was in the 9th grade. I used a 3.3 lb can of malt extract syrup (purchased in the local grocery store), sugar and water in a 3 gallon sour-kraut crock out in the barn. The recipe was one that I got from my uncle. I put a pillow case over it to keep the bugs out. As I recall that was in the Fall of the year when the temps were still slightly above freezing in Western Arkansas (Ft. Smith to be exact). There were no fancy fermenters or air locks or even hops, just a bare dirt floor and plenty of cool air circulation. I do remember boiling it for a while and using bread yeast to activate it. The odors of brewing could be smelled as soon as you left the house (about 50 ft away). When it finished bubbling, I waited an additional week to be safe as my uncle warned me of exploding bottles if it was "put-up" too soon. I borrowed his capper and used rinsed out RC Cola soda bottles (I had no idea about strerilization at that time). There was about 1/4 Inch of sediment in the bottom of each bottle, so pouting it off carefully into a glass was required unless you liked a very yeasty taste. I became an instant buddy with all the guys in my class once the word got out, because I knew how to make beer. My folks always said, "if your going to drink, do it here at home". I believe that I only ran off one more batch before getting involved in other high school activities.
In 1963 I moved to Texas, after college, to work for Texas Instruments and got involved with a local brew club (North Texas Brewers). One of the fellows at work, by the name of Peter Wright, was from Whales and he was an all grain brewer. After much nagging he taught me his recipe for what is close to a Newcastle Brown Ale. There were several brew shops in the area where grains were easily obtained. I ran off several batches over the years when the urge hit me. In 1985 I moved to Scottsdale Arizona and got connected with a local informal brew club. At that time the fad was to use malt extracts and the brew kits were everywhere and very inexpensive too, cheaper than grain. I had a preference to an Octoberfest which was almost identical to the brown ale.
Since prickly pear cactus was so abundant in Arizona, my mother sent me all of her hand written wine recipes since she was getting up in years then and didn't brew any more (she made it to be 95 years old). I decided to give making wine a try in 1986 (and I still have 4 bottles from that first 5 gallon batch). The wine had a beautiful magenta color and was around 12% alcohol. I lost a few bottles due to continued fermentation in the bottle (and blowing corks). Being new to wine making, I had not stabilized the must before bottling it and there were a lot of complex sugars that did not readily break down. It did not age well either as the color started turning to a brown color, but the upside was that it was starting to taste like a Port wine (heavy and very sweet). About that time I bought property in Beaver Valley and eventually started to build. All of my brewing equipment got stored in the basement and set dormant for many years while weekend construction was underway. Recently, my wife suggested that we take a day trip down to the Superior area and attend an information class on prickly pear cactus. She wanted to make jelly and I was considering running off another batch of wine. Shortly after attending the class, I stopped by the Homebrew Depot to get some supplies and mentioned coming up to the Payson area. I was asked if I knew John Gould who lived in the area? I got John's email address and bombed him from out of the blue. That started the phone calls and introductory protocols and as they say "The rest is recent history". The cactus wine is progressing nicely and now that I am unemployed (retired) I have more time to get into (brewing) mischief.
Cheers,
Cullen
