I was a computer studies teacher at a girl’s school for 12 years, but made a career change in 2013. I was accepted into the Brewmaster program at Niagara College, and am now a brewer at Magnotta Brewery in Vaughan.

My dad! He’d been homebrewing on and off since the 1985 beer strike, and we helped by bottling. I inherited his bottle capper, which is still as much of a PITA to use now as it was then.

What are your hobbies/interests outside of homebrewing?

I got into the hobby myself about 5 years ago when I wanted to tweak a raspberry wheat beer that just didn’t have enough raspberries in it.

Looking at my record book, it seems I prefer English, malt-forward styles the most. I also love to experiment with fruit, spices and other ingredients depending on where the inspiration takes me.

I live in an apartment, and space is at a premium. I was doing 3 to 5 gallon brews using a converted Home Depot cooler and every big stock pot I could get my hands on until the beginning of this year when my beloved got me a Grainfather as a graduation present. It has it’s quirks, but is way handier overall for brewing in my small space.

That would be my first beer, a 1-gallon honey ale that I brewed with untreated Toronto tap water and then played close-enough-is-good-enough with priming sugar. It gushed so much I had to clean the kitchen ceiling. What remained was undrinkable.

When you are dealing with smaller batches, close enough is in fact NOT good enough. Proportions matter, and there is no room for error, especially with 1 gallon brews.

The home brew I am most happy with is the Lychee Gose I made a few months ago, inspired by a salted lychee soda I had while in Japan. It was the first time I’d done a kettle sour at home or used lychees, and had to do a bit of on-the-fly problem solving (there were…issues), so was pretty nervous about the final product. I was very pleased when it was exactly what I’d envisioned!

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Acquiring a fermentation fridge! It’s amazing what a consistent and appropriate temperature will do to keep yeast happy. I had been fermenting in a cupboard beside the fridge until an unexpected hot spell coincided with an air conditioning failure and resulted in a seriously off beer.

• Do some reading. I really like the Brewing Element Series (http://www.brewerspublications.com/brewing-elements-series/) and refer to them pretty frequently. Zymrgy and Brew Your Own magazines are also good resources.
• Ask questions. If anyone treats them like they’re stupid questions, then ask someone else. No one was born knowing this.
• Take good notes during the whole process. It’s impossible to replicate something a year later when you can’t remember what you did. Use a notebook, a printable brewday template or software, whatever your preference.
• Brew! Get to know your hardware, experiment with ingredients, play around & see what happens.
• Don’t live by the numbers. Targets are great to aim for, but don’t get too wrapped up in hitting them exactly.

I did the first two Prud’homme levels before getting into the Brewmaster program, and am a BJCP Certified judge.

Why would I want to be a tree frog? They don’t drink beer.