So it begins...

My wife and I bought our first home last year in Temecula and so far we absolutely love it. Temecula is a great mix of the city and country while only being about an hour away from both the beach and the snow. Although it's known as wine country, there is still a very heavy influence of craft beer here. When most grocery and liquor stores stock your average BMC (Bud, Miller, Coors), Temecula proudly carries world renown craft beers with a heavy San Diego Micro-Brew arsenal both in stores and restaurants. Local places like Barley & Hops and the Pub House are usually packed with beer enthusiasts. At this point there is only one local brewery, Black Market -but I have a hunch more are to come even with the famous "Beer Highway" 78 (Stone, Lost Abbey, Green Flash, Pizza Port...) only 30 minutes away.

We purchased a small 3 BR 2 BA home in the suburbs of Temecula. It has a very small backyard, but big enough to entertain the kids and grow some ingredients! It's not the nice big property we both grew up with in San Diego - but who can afford that these days? We grew up in San Diego surrounded by mothers that love to garden and taught us the trade. Amy (my wife) eventually worked at different nurseries throughout San Diego perfecting her skills and I, well, I started drinking good beer and making it.

So we asked ourselves, what can I do and others do to perfect their Home Brewing skills? What can we do to make sure the ingredients are the best, the beer is the best and do it with sustainability in mind? The answer is the Urban Beer Gardener! I am going to walk YOU through the different stages of planting hops, herbs, grains, vegetables and fruit trees (with only beer in mind) in your own backyard. I'll teach you how to harvest them, brew with them and finally the best part - consume it the right way (not as simple as you think!). -Cheers!

NEXT: Herbs. Planting Lavender and Rosemary with a special IPA in mind.

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