BYOB: Brew Your Own Beer

John McDonald, founder and president of Boulevard Brewing Company, walks through the doors of the largest American-owned brewery in Missouri every morning and is greeted by the smells and sounds of brewing beer. What started out as innocent homebrewing quickly trumped his construction day job and morphed into Boulevard Brewing Company, a brewery that boasts full distribution in 13 Midwestern states.

The standard brown bottle is now anything but standard to him, and the amber-colored liquid inside didn’t get that beautiful color by being brewed in gargantuan tanks. McDonald created a Midwest powerhouse brewery, and the best part about it is that he started out at home.

The American Homebrewers Association estimates that there are one million Americans homebrewing beer at least once a year. This trend is becoming more appealing every year. According to a Google search snapshot, the words “home brewing supplies” have quadrupled in search volume since 2008.

This mentality created the Lawrence Brewers Guild, the largest brewing guild in Kansas. The guild meets once a month to educate others on homebrewing as well as sample beers that Guild members have brewed. You don’t have to be a homebrewing expert to join. Lawrencebrewers.org allows anyone to join online, and after paying a small fee, you’re in the guild.

The guild has made beer quite prevalent in Lawrence, and Lake Lero and his father found a way to make it a business. Jake Lero, an alumnus, homebrewer and member of the Lawrence Brewers Guild, opened JWL Craft Brewing at Bob Billings and Kasold with his father, after a playful exchange over why no one had opened up a brewing supply store in town where home brewing thrived. Lero wrote it off as talk, but his dad was more serious. “I was sitting in a lecture, and I got a text from my dad asking if I wanted to open up a homebrew store with him,” he says.

JWL Craft Brewing provide you with everything you need for specialty brewing. They have all the brewing ingredients—extracts, hops, grains—to get you started on your first batch. Lero is willing to take you step-by-step through the brewing process, and though they can’t legally teach classes at the store, he’s willing to show you how to brew in the comfort of your own home.

Obviously, opening up a homebrew store is a bit more of an investment than simply buying the equipment. The minimum start-up cost is about $150, and if you want to get fancy, it can go as high as $250. Start-up supplies include a boiling pot, fermenting and bottling bucket, capping and siphoning equipment, Lero says. The base ingredients for the beer include water, malt, yeast and hops.

But homebrewing can also prevent expensive trips to bars. Amanda Kong, a senior from Lawrence, prefers to drink at home before spending her money at the bars on low-quality beer. “Most bars charge $4 a pint for anything decent, so I usually get a 6-pack of something enjoyable like Boulevard IPA. That way by the time I go out, I haven’t compromised on taste or my bank account,” Kong says.

Money aside, some students prefer homebrewed beers to commercialized beers because of the quality. Kurt Lehner, a senior from Cheny, is one of them. “Commercialized beers pretty much have the same texture. There’s no room for uniqueness in a huge brewing process,” Lehner says. Others students prefer it because of the flavor. “If I’m going to drink a beer, I want it to taste like beer, not water,” says Mark Ross, a senior from Horton.

When it comes down to it, the only way to be certain your beer will be just what you wanted is to brew it yourself. Jack Gobbo is a homebrewer in Santa Cruz, Calif. Gobbo started brewing in 1998 and became so fond of the hobby that he created his own label to stick on the bottles. He calls his beer “Cruz Brew.” He says that the steps to all-grain brewing are straightforward and simple.

Mashing or steeping is when you mix milled or cracked malted barley grains in 170 degree water for up to an hour in a seven gallon stainless steel pot. During this hour-long steep, the starch in the grains is converted into fermented sugar by enzymes naturally present in the malted barley, Gobbo says. Once the sugar has been converted, place the grain in a strainer and run hot water over it. This rinses the sugars out of the grains in a process called sparging. The runoff, called wort, is then collected in another seven gallon stainless steel pot. From there you boil the wort and add your choice of hops. Boil for around one hour for complete flavor incorporation. “Adding hops provides the beer with aroma, bitterness and flavor,” Gobbo says.

You’ve mashed and boiled, and the next step is to add yeast. After the wort has cooled to 70 degrees, transfer it to a six gallon container and add the specialized beer yeast. The yeast then “eats” the fermented sugars from the wort. The by-product of this process is CO2 and alcohol. This process can take up to a week. If you add yeast to wort that is above 70 degrees, you can kill the yeast, ruining your brew.

After a week,the product will actually taste like beer, but will be flat and a bit murky, which is why the next step, carbonation, is necessary. Gobbo says to transfer the flat beer to another six gallon container. This removes the finished beer from the dead yeast cells that remained in the initial six gallon container, as well as allowing the beer to settle and become more clarified. Adding a small amount of corn sugar to the container allows the corn sugar to eat the final traces of live yeast. Fill and cap 12-ounce bottles, and let them sit for two weeks in order for the beer to carbonate itself.

Thankfully, there is a reward to all your homebrewing hard work. The health benefits of beer have recently been something to take note of. The American Heart Association now posts the benefits of drinking beer in moderation on its website in association to potential heart health. Robert A. Wascher, doctor and author of A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race in Phoenix, refers to studies that have shown upsides to drinking one beer per day. “Alcohol itself, polyphenolic compounds [antioxidants from plant foods that work in the body to enhance health], and hops have all been linked to improvements in cardiovascular health,” Wascher says.

As far as light and dark beer benefits go, when it comes to your health, the darker the better. “In general, research suggests that lighter beers may be less effective in reducing cardiovascular disease when compared to heavier styles of beer,” Wascher says.

But those health benefits aren’t obtained if you’re brewing beer the wrong way. The first step is sanitation. This is key because germs love fermenting beer and will destroy the entire batch if not sanitized correctly, says Lero. Jeremy Denner, brewer for Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Mo., also emphasizes the point on sanitation. “You could make the most complex beer with 12 different malts and eight hop varieties, but if you can’t clean and sanitize your fermenter properly, you’re going to end up with infected, undrinkable beer,” Denner.

Another common mistake new brewers make is being too complex. Denner suggests brewers begin with a beer they drink frequently so they know if they’re making it correctly. Denner also recommends a pale ale. “With a clean, balanced pale ale, there’s nowhere for the off flavors to hide. Keep it simple,” Denner says.

Crafting beer can be as creative or as generic as you want to make it. Lero has brewed recipes of coconut lime and sunflower wheat beers as well as mint chocolate and peanut butter chocolate stouts. One member from the Guild makes a lemon honey ginger pale ale, which Lero said was an “excellent” brew.

When it comes to specialty beers, Denner says it’s all about balance. Many places brew raspberry, blueberry and pumpkin beers according to the season. “If you’re going to make a raspberry beer, I would suggest using whole raspberries or a very high quality raspberry extract. For pumpkin beers, the flavor is really about the spices, not so much the pumpkin flavor,” Denner says. “With fruit beers, I think it’s important to think outside the box and combine flavors that aren’t always obvious.

Beer has a lot more depth despite its usual pale-colored appearance. The homebrew start-up may seem steep, but the paybacks eventually add up, whether it’s cash saved from going to the bars, high-fives from your friends or just crafting a beer that is specifically tailored to your taste buds. The ingredient list is short and sweet. Get to brewing and even your heart may thank you.