Ian Clark, founder of BRU handbuilt ales & eats, is one smart man. Not because he's been successful in a business where it's notoriously hard to succeed, but because he knows how to get brownie points where they matter most: with the in-laws.

See also: Review of BRU handbuilt ales & eats -- ale to the chef!

Knowing that his father-in-law had an interest in brewing, Clark, who shared the bug, gave him a beermaking kit for Father's Day -- but as it turned out, his father-in-law didn't like the process enough to make it worth the clean-up.

"I said, 'How about this, I'll leave it at my house,'" recalls Clark. "A few months went by and I did a brown pale ale and was hooked right from there." Soon beer was taking over the basement and then the garage.

At that point, he says, his wife told him that "your home-brewing hobby is costing us a lot of money and we really need to do something about that." That something, of course, was BRU, subject of this week's review, which you can read here.

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