Pijiu - or - How you say beer in Chinese...

Hey guys - had a cool experience today I wanted to share.

I was brewing my first annual 'lets use those left over hops from last year' IPA. Had a few ounces of Simcoe, Centennial and Columbus that needed to get boiled, and since the fiancee was away at work, seemed like a good day to fire'her up.

I get through a relatively unexciting mash, with 13.4 pounds of american 2 row pale, mashed at 154 for 60 minutes. Remembering last weeks lautering, I hope that this week's session goes smoother (13.4 lbs, no pumpkin puree, piece of cake, right"?').

Well, little did I know that I would have another terrible lauter (looking for help here, but that is really secondary to my story). After spending nearly 45 minutes on vorlaufing and lautering about a gallon of wort, I decide to revert back to my 'olden' days and pour that MF'er into my kettle through my BIAB bag and be done with it.

I get the wort in the kettle, albeit, through the BIAB bag, and I notice that I've attracted a small crowd. Small, in that there is a 70'ish Asian man standing about 15 feet away, contently watching my every move.

I motion to him that it's okay to come closer and I say 'Hello' hoping for a response. Well, I got no response. I tell him that I'm making beer and still, no response. When I ask him his name, he motions quite clearly that he does not speak English. How interesting. Where to proceed from here?

I have a recycling bin of empty beer bottles that I decide would highlight to him that I am brewing beer. I take my Super IPA bottle (New Belgium/Alpine Collab) and show him that what I am boiling ends up in a beer bottle. I offer him some of my homebrewed Coconut Rum Imperial Porter, but he politely declines.

He seems somewhat interested, but still, unimpressed. I take a peek at my phone to check the boil time (looking for 90 min boil since I over 'sparged' using BIAB) and I notice the gentleman has pulled out a newer looking iPhone.

While I'm busy taking care of my business, the man begins to bring our conversation into the 21st century by using his iPhone as a translator. It's altogether confusing, but interesting to see the means by which he attempts to talk to me. After clumsily typing back and forth to each other, I soon run out of propane and signal that I must leave to refill to continue my boil. The man gently whispers 'good bye' in English and I continue with the propane tank towards my car.

I come back about 15 minutes later and get my boil on. All is going well when I notice three figures walking towards me. It's the older gentleman, his son-in-law and daughter coming my way.

I say hello, thankful for the translators, and we begin to converse. Nick, the son-in-law, Quinn, the daughter, and Wei, the older gentleman all come by to say hello. The father (Wei), was so interested by our conversation (and use of iphone translation) that he convinced his family to follow him to some strangers townhouse to learn more.

I once again offer him some of my coconut rum imperial porter and, after translation by his daughter, he quickly accepts. He first smells, then cautiously samples the beer. After a few seconds, he decides to finish the whole glass! His daughter, Son-in-law and I all erupt in laughter as their father made short work of my homebrew.

All in all, I learned that homebrewing is interesting to most, if not all, cultures. The gentleman, 70 or older, was interested in every move I made. He leaned down to inspect the propane tank, leaned further to see below the propane burner, & stared deeply into the boil kettle.

I learned that Pijiu means beer, in, what I assume, is Mandarin. I learned that homebrewing can bring a community closer. And I had a hell of time experiencing it.

 

Thanks! Totally made me forget my crappy lauter! Made a small mistake above, she's actually my wife now. Long gone are those days of a fiancee!

 

Absolutely!