In a section of the Gateway Arts and Entertainment District, flush with painters, sculptors and performers trying to master their art, some are trying to hone another craft — brewing the perfect beer at home.

The trend has become so popular, an informal community group of home-brewers formed about a year ago in and around Hyattsville, Mount Rainier, Brentwood and North Brentwood — the municipalities that comprise the arts district.

The district offers tax incentives to those who sell art or operate art-related businesses. Members of the home-brewing group include residents outside the district, as well.

Adam Ortiz, who lives in nearby Edmonston and joined the group, said he has gotten close to making the perfect India pale ale with his friends.

“It was amazing,” said Ortiz, acting director for Prince George’s County’s Department of Environmental Resources. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the skill set to ever be able to reproduce it again, which is why we are going to keep on trying. We had the Holy Grail, and then we drank it.”

Maryland state law permits home-brewing beer without a permit or license as long as it is not for sale, according to a database of home-brewing laws maintained by the American Homebrewers Association.

Ortiz said he never knew brewing beer at home was such a large trend where he lives until he joined the group. The former Edmonston mayor said about a dozen people attended the first meeting of the group he attended last year.

The last meeting of the group, held in the summer of 2012, had about 25 people, said Christian Melendez, a Silver Spring resident who joined the group and works as the Edmonston urban farm coordinator for Eco City Farms, an urban farm that sells fresh produce to local residents.

“There are more and more people, and for the first time, people are recognizing that it is a community,” Ortiz said. “I am learning of more people, even people I know, that do this as a hobby.”

Ortiz said those in his group discuss best brewing practices and different brews they are working on, and gently critique each other’s beer. Ortiz, who describes his skills at “below intermediate,” said those in the group have helped him learn better practices and new recipes.

Melendez, a home-brewer for five years, said it was great to meet others in the group and was surprised to find out how many people were interested in the craft.

“There is a lot of camaraderie,” he said.

Ortiz said he and fellow group member Bill Updike, a former Mount Rainier city councilman, brewed a strong batch of pale ale that contained a lot of hops — a flower used to give beer its bitter taste.

Making beer with Updike was fun, because the Mount Rainier resident is a much more experienced brewer, Ortiz said.

Updike, who has been brewing at home for about 15 years, has started to grow hops in his backyard to use with malt, sugar, grain and other ingredients to brew a variety of beers, such as pale ales, lagers, stouts and India pale ales, among others. The ingredients are added to water, boiled and cooled, then fermented with yeast and set out for a few weeks before they are ready to drink, he said.

Updike brews his own beer because he enjoys sharing it with friends at his home, he said. Updike said he also feels it is more ecologically sound, citing reports of large brewing companies that have been accused of contaminating nearby bodies of water.

“It’s interesting to hear how people approach their own versions of home-brewing,” Updike said. “For a lot of us, it’s about the local economy and learning to do things that folks did 100 years ago. Everyone knew how to make their food, make their own beer and be more self-reliant.”

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“It’s interesting to hear how people approach their own versions of home brewing,” said group member Bill Updike. “For a lot of us, it’s about the local economy and learning to do things that folks did 100 years ago. Everyone knew how to make their food, make their own beer and be more self-reliant.”

The arts district offers tax incentives to those who sell art or operate art-related businesses. The home brewing group also includes members who live outside the district. Adam Ortiz, a member who lives in nearby Edmonston, said he has gotten close to making the perfect India pale ale with his friends.

“It was amazing,” said Ortiz, acting director for Prince George’s County’s Department of Environmental Resources. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the skill set to ever be able to reproduce it again, which is why we are going to keep on trying. We had the Holy Grail, and then we drank it.”

Maryland law permits home brewing beer without a permit or license as long as it is not for sale, according to a database of home brewing laws maintained by the American Homebrewers Association.

Ortiz said he never knew brewing beer at home was such a trend until he joined the group. The former Edmonston mayor said about a dozen people attended the first meeting of the group last year.

Another meeting last summer had about 25 people, said Christian Melendez, a Silver Spring resident who joined the group and works as the Edmonston urban farm coordinator for Eco City Farms, which sells fresh produce to local residents.

Ortiz said the group discusses brewing practices and brews they are working on, and members gently critique each other’s beer. Ortiz, who describes his skills as “below intermediate,” said the group has helped him learn better practices and new recipes.

Ortiz said he and fellow group member Updike, a former Mount Rainier city council member, brewed a strong batch of pale ale that contained a lot of hops — a flower used to give beer its bitter taste.

Making beer with Updike was fun because he is a much more experienced brewer, Ortiz said.

Updike, who has been brewing at home for about 15 years, has started to grow hops in his back yard to use with malt, sugar, grain and other ingredients to brew a variety of beers, such as pale ales, lagers, stouts and India pale ales. The ingredients are added to water, boiled, cooled and fermented with yeast and set out for a few weeks before being ready to drink, he said.

Updike brews beer because he enjoys being able to share it with friends at his home, he said. Updike said he also feels it is more ecologically sound, citing reports of large brewing companies that have been accused of contaminating nearby bodies of water.

Melendez, who said he has been home brewing for five years, said it was great to meet fellow home brewers in the group and that he was surprised to find out how many people were interested in the craft.

“There is a lot of camaraderie,” he said.

Americans have been brewing beer in their homes since colonial times—both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were home brewers. Even so, a recent explosion of interest in the hobby has created tricky questions for state alcohol regulators.

As of July 1, home brewing will be legal in all 50 states. But many states still prohibit home brewers from transporting their beer to club meetings or competitions. Some states also limit the amount a home brewer can produce in a year.

The remaining restrictions rankle home brewers, who say swapping samples and competing with other brewers is what their culture is all about. “You could just drink your home brew at home, but you’d be missing out on a large part of the community,” said James Spencer, who hosts a popular podcast about home brewing.

Some states have been lax in enforcing such rules, but the hobby’s popularity and the growth of home brew supply stores is making it harder to justify a hands-off approach. About a million Americans brew their own beer at least once a year, according to the American Homebrewers Association. The group now has 37,000 members, up from 8,700 in 2005.

The tension has sparked legislative fights in several states. In 2010, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission shut down an annual home brew competition at the Oregon State Fair that had been held for 22 years. In response, the Oregon legislature scrapped state restrictions on where home brew can be made and consumed, and legalized fees and prizes at home brew competitions. Oregon home brewers also can engage in small-scale professional brewing at pubs.

Other states have taken similar action. Wisconsin lifted many of its restrictions in 2012, after the Schooner Home Brew Competition was spirited to a nearby city to appease uneasy city officials. And this year, Georgia and Iowa approved laws allowing home brewers to take their beer out of their homes. State lawmakers in Illinois and Missouri also are considering measures that would allow home brewers to participate in public festivals and competitions.

But the American Homebrewers Association advises its members to proceed cautiously in state capitols. “If it is technically not legal to share home brew at a club meeting in your state, but there has not been any enforcement of that law, it may not be worth exposure of home brew club activities, when changing the law is not guaranteed and could end up taking years,” it says.

Moonshine Memories
In some states, home brewing restrictions have deep cultural roots. The last two states to legalize home brewing were Alabama, which legalized it on May 9, and Mississippi, where it will be legal starting July 1. The legislation wasn’t an easy sell in either state—in part because both still have dry counties and memories of moonshine.

“We’ve been working on this for five years,” said Craig Hendry, president of Raise Your Pints, which led the campaign in Mississippi. “One year it was an election year, so of course they’re not going to touch alcohol legislation then.”

Alabama’s debate was filled with filibusters and heated debate about the morality of allowing people to make their own beer.

“We’re just completely opening up the whole state to alcohol— every family, every home, every block,” Republican Rep. Arthur Payne said during a lengthy debate on the House floor. “I represent a district that has a strong family unit, and we don’t want to flood our neighborhoods with alcohol.”

Alabama’s anti-home brewing attitude was clear last fall when agents of the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board visited Hop City, a craft beer and home brew supplier in Birmingham.

“They came in and raided us and said that we can’t do any home brewing business,” said Spencer Overton, a former commercial brewer who was hired to be the store’s home brew manager. According to Overton, the agents threatened felony charges and confiscated $7,000 worth of merchandise. “They took some books about home brewing, which was very Fahrenheit 451 of them,” Overton said, referring to the futuristic Ray Bradbury novel in which fire fighters torch homes containing books.

Since home brewing was legalized, Hop City has stocked up on home brew supplies and Overton will be teaching home brew classes.

State Sen. Bill Holtzclaw said he pushed for the Alabama bill because many of his constituents are NASA scientists who were risking felony convictions—and their top-secret security clearances—by brewing at home.

“It was easy for me to get behind this as an individual rights issue, and as an economic development opportunity,” said Holtzclaw, a Republican.

He noted that many craft brewers started out brewing at home. “Rather than see it as threat, (craft brewers) see it as a way for folks who are really serious to leave the hobby realm and move over to the professional realm,” he said.

Swapping or Selling?
During some of the state debates, local beer distributors have cautioned against allowing home brewers to act too much like commercial brewers without paying for licenses.

But most home brewers say they are determined to keep their craft distinct from the brewing business, even though the required equipment and ingredients are expensive. “The spirit of home is not to make it to sell,” said Spencer, the podcast host. “The spirit of home brewing is to make it to share.”

Sometimes this involves walking a difficult line. At a recent home brew competition in Washington, D.C. sponsored by craft brewer Samuel Adams, participating home brewers were required to cover their own costs, and all proceeds of the sold-out event were donated to charity. “The beer is free, and Sam Adams is even providing some free snacks, but if you want to come you have to donate to a great local charity,” the invitation said.

Josh Hubner, who heads DC Homebrewers, said his group negotiated a corkage fee with the hosting bar under a District of Columbia law that allows consumers to bring their own alcohol to a restaurant for a small fee. “If someone came and they said ‘we want to drink the beer,’ we’d have to give it to them,” he said. “People are doing this totally for the love of home brew.”

Hubner said he doesn’t want it to be legal for people to sell home brew. “All I’d really want would be a general acknowledgement that this is something that people do, and that it is beneficial to the community,” he said.

Nevertheless, home brewing has become a training ground for craft brewers, which is why brewing companies such as Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada have become huge supporters. Samuel Adams sponsors an annual national home brewing competition and mass produces the winning beers.

According to data from the Brewers Association, craft brewing sales have been increasing dramatically and taking over a greater share of the domestic beer market. Total craft beer sales grew 17 percent in 2012 and 15 percent in 2011.

Jim Koch, who founded Samuel Adams, started as a home brewer and created the first batch of Samuel Adams Boston Lager in his kitchen.

“Most craft brewing came out of home brewing,” Koch said. “This activity that used to be illegal everywhere has created 100,000 jobs in the last 30 years and probably encouraged the responsible consumption of flavorful beer. From the state point of view, the home brewer that you just legalized might be the employer of people in your state in the future.”

Koch’s advice to state lawmakers is to give home brewers the benefit of the doubt while putting reasonable safeguards in place: “Home brewers have an enormous amount of respect for the dignity of beer, so cut them a little slack,” he said.

Also on HuffPost:

Loading Slideshow

• 1. Bud Light

  Cases sold: 269,135,600
  Average price per case: $20.26
  Total sales: $5,452,052,000

• 2. Budweiser

  Cases sold: 101,760,300
  Average price per case: $20.21
  Total sales: $2,056,722,000

• 3. Coors Light

  Cases sold: 101,651,900
  Average price per case: $19.85
  Total sales: $2,017,366,000

• Miller Lite

  Cases sold: 86,678,030
  Average price per case: $19.80
  Total sales: $1,716,281,000

• Natural Light

  Cases sold: 72,036,540
  Average price per case: $15.41
  Total sales: $1,110,150,000

• Busch Light

  Cases sold: 49,320,380
  Average price per case: $14.96
  Total sales: $737,926,300

• Busch

  Cases sold: 43,696,500
  Average price per case: $15.39
  Total sales: $672,443,100

• Michelob Ultra Light

  Cases sold: 43,696,500
  Average price per case: $15.39
  Total sales: $672,443,100

• Miller High Life

  Cases sold: 32,215,610
  Average price per case: $15.49
  Total sales: $499,148,300

• Keystone Light

  Cases sold: 32,654,530
  Average price per case: $14.71
  Total sales: $480,261,800

• Natural Ice

  Cases sold: 24,161,730
  Average price per case: $14.91
  Total sales: $360,287,600

• Bud Light Lime

  Cases sold: 11,354,010
  Average price per case: $25.91
  Total sales: $294,227,200

• Ice House

  Cases sold: 14,545,810
  Average price per case: $16.20
  Total sales: $235,627,900

• Pabst Blue Ribbon

  Cases sold: 14,690,570
  Average price per case: $15.89
  Total sales: $233,392,000

• Bud Ice

  Cases sold: 13,535,730
  Average price per case: $17.05
  Total sales: $230,767,400

• Yuengling Traditional Lager

  Cases sold: 10,036,280
  Average price per case: $21.89
  Total sales: $219,679,200

• Bud Light Platinum Lager

  Cases sold: 7,285,657
  Average price per case: $26.31
  Total sales: $191,701,900

• Steel Reserve High Gravity Lager

  Cases sold: 9,660,888
  Average price per case: $18.29
  Total sales: $176,728,700

• Blue Moon Belgian White Ale

  Cases sold: 5,215,089
  Average price per case: $31.01
  Total sales: $161,708,100

• Coors

  Cases sold: 7,635,134
  Average price per case: $19.25
  Total sales: $147,010,300

Americans have been brewing beer in their homes since colonial times—both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were home brewers. Even so, a recent explosion of interest in the hobby has created tricky questions for state alcohol regulators.

As of July 1, home brewing will be legal in all 50 states. But many states still prohibit home brewers from transporting their beer to club meetings or competitions. Some states also limit the amount a home brewer can produce in a year.

The remaining restrictions rankle home brewers, who say swapping samples and competing with other brewers is what their culture is all about. “You could just drink your home brew at home, but you’d be missing out on a large part of the community,” said James Spencer, who hosts a popular podcast about home brewing.

Some states have been lax in enforcing such rules, but the hobby’s popularity and the growth of home brew supply stores is making it harder to justify a hands-off approach. About a million Americans brew their own beer at least once a year, according to the American Homebrewers Association. The group now has 37,000 members, up from 8,700 in 2005.

The tension has sparked legislative fights in several states. In 2010, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission shut down an annual home brew competition at the Oregon State Fair that had been held for 22 years. In response, the Oregon legislature scrapped state restrictions on where home brew can be made and consumed, and legalized fees and prizes at home brew competitions. Oregon home brewers also can engage in small-scale professional brewing at pubs.

Other states have taken similar action. Wisconsin lifted many of its restrictions in 2012, after the Schooner Home Brew Competition was spirited to a nearby city to appease uneasy city officials. And this year, Georgia and Iowa approved laws allowing home brewers to take their beer out of their homes. State lawmakers in Illinois and Missouri also are considering measures that would allow home brewers to participate in public festivals and competitions.

But the American Homebrewers Association advises its members to proceed cautiously in state capitols. “If it is technically not legal to share home brew at a club meeting in your state, but there has not been any enforcement of that law, it may not be worth exposure of home brew club activities, when changing the law is not guaranteed and could end up taking years,” it says.

Moonshine Memories
In some states, home brewing restrictions have deep cultural roots. The last two states to legalize home brewing were Alabama, which legalized it on May 9, and Mississippi, where it will be legal starting July 1. The legislation wasn’t an easy sell in either state—in part because both still have dry counties and memories of moonshine.

“We’ve been working on this for five years,” said Craig Hendry, president of Raise Your Pints, which led the campaign in Mississippi. “One year it was an election year, so of course they’re not going to touch alcohol legislation then.”

Alabama’s debate was filled with filibusters and heated debate about the morality of allowing people to make their own beer.

“We’re just completely opening up the whole state to alcohol— every family, every home, every block,” Republican Rep. Arthur Payne said during a lengthy debate on the House floor. “I represent a district that has a strong family unit, and we don’t want to flood our neighborhoods with alcohol.”

Alabama’s anti-home brewing attitude was clear last fall when agents of the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board visited Hop City, a craft beer and home brew supplier in Birmingham.

“They came in and raided us and said that we can’t do any home brewing business,” said Spencer Overton, a former commercial brewer who was hired to be the store’s home brew manager. According to Overton, the agents threatened felony charges and confiscated $7,000 worth of merchandise. “They took some books about home brewing, which was very Fahrenheit 451 of them,” Overton said, referring to the futuristic Ray Bradbury novel in which fire fighters torch homes containing books.

Since home brewing was legalized, Hop City has stocked up on home brew supplies and Overton will be teaching home brew classes.

State Sen. Bill Holtzclaw said he pushed for the Alabama bill because many of his constituents are NASA scientists who were risking felony convictions—and their top-secret security clearances—by brewing at home.

“It was easy for me to get behind this as an individual rights issue, and as an economic development opportunity,” said Holtzclaw, a Republican.

He noted that many craft brewers started out brewing at home. “Rather than see it as threat, (craft brewers) see it as a way for folks who are really serious to leave the hobby realm and move over to the professional realm,” he said.

Swapping or Selling?
During some of the state debates, local beer distributors have cautioned against allowing home brewers to act too much like commercial brewers without paying for licenses.

But most home brewers say they are determined to keep their craft distinct from the brewing business, even though the required equipment and ingredients are expensive. “The spirit of home is not to make it to sell,” said Spencer, the podcast host. “The spirit of home brewing is to make it to share.”

Sometimes this involves walking a difficult line. At a recent home brew competition in Washington, D.C. sponsored by craft brewer Samuel Adams, participating home brewers were required to cover their own costs, and all proceeds of the sold-out event were donated to charity. “The beer is free, and Sam Adams is even providing some free snacks, but if you want to come you have to donate to a great local charity,” the invitation said.

Josh Hubner, who heads DC Homebrewers, said his group negotiated a corkage fee with the hosting bar under a District of Columbia law that allows consumers to bring their own alcohol to a restaurant for a small fee. “If someone came and they said ‘we want to drink the beer,’ we’d have to give it to them,” he said. “People are doing this totally for the love of home brew.”

Hubner said he doesn’t want it to be legal for people to sell home brew. “All I’d really want would be a general acknowledgement that this is something that people do, and that it is beneficial to the community,” he said.

Nevertheless, home brewing has become a training ground for craft brewers, which is why brewing companies such as Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada have become huge supporters. Samuel Adams sponsors an annual national home brewing competition and mass produces the winning beers.

According to data from the Brewers Association, craft brewing sales have been increasing dramatically and taking over a greater share of the domestic beer market. Total craft beer sales grew 17 percent in 2012 and 15 percent in 2011.

Jim Koch, who founded Samuel Adams, started as a home brewer and created the first batch of Samuel Adams Boston Lager in his kitchen.

“Most craft brewing came out of home brewing,” Koch said. “This activity that used to be illegal everywhere has created 100,000 jobs in the last 30 years and probably encouraged the responsible consumption of flavorful beer. From the state point of view, the home brewer that you just legalized might be the employer of people in your state in the future.”

Koch’s advice to state lawmakers is to give home brewers the benefit of the doubt while putting reasonable safeguards in place: “Home brewers have an enormous amount of respect for the dignity of beer, so cut them a little slack,” he said.

Also on HuffPost:

Loading Slideshow

• 1. Bud Light

  Cases sold: 269,135,600
  Average price per case: $20.26
  Total sales: $5,452,052,000

• 2. Budweiser

  Cases sold: 101,760,300
  Average price per case: $20.21
  Total sales: $2,056,722,000

• 3. Coors Light

  Cases sold: 101,651,900
  Average price per case: $19.85
  Total sales: $2,017,366,000

• Miller Lite

  Cases sold: 86,678,030
  Average price per case: $19.80
  Total sales: $1,716,281,000

• Natural Light

  Cases sold: 72,036,540
  Average price per case: $15.41
  Total sales: $1,110,150,000

• Busch Light

  Cases sold: 49,320,380
  Average price per case: $14.96
  Total sales: $737,926,300

• Busch

  Cases sold: 43,696,500
  Average price per case: $15.39
  Total sales: $672,443,100

• Michelob Ultra Light

  Cases sold: 43,696,500
  Average price per case: $15.39
  Total sales: $672,443,100

• Miller High Life

  Cases sold: 32,215,610
  Average price per case: $15.49
  Total sales: $499,148,300

• Keystone Light

  Cases sold: 32,654,530
  Average price per case: $14.71
  Total sales: $480,261,800

• Natural Ice

  Cases sold: 24,161,730
  Average price per case: $14.91
  Total sales: $360,287,600

• Bud Light Lime

  Cases sold: 11,354,010
  Average price per case: $25.91
  Total sales: $294,227,200

• Ice House

  Cases sold: 14,545,810
  Average price per case: $16.20
  Total sales: $235,627,900

• Pabst Blue Ribbon

  Cases sold: 14,690,570
  Average price per case: $15.89
  Total sales: $233,392,000

• Bud Ice

  Cases sold: 13,535,730
  Average price per case: $17.05
  Total sales: $230,767,400

• Yuengling Traditional Lager

  Cases sold: 10,036,280
  Average price per case: $21.89
  Total sales: $219,679,200

• Bud Light Platinum Lager

  Cases sold: 7,285,657
  Average price per case: $26.31
  Total sales: $191,701,900

• Steel Reserve High Gravity Lager

  Cases sold: 9,660,888
  Average price per case: $18.29
  Total sales: $176,728,700

• Blue Moon Belgian White Ale

  Cases sold: 5,215,089
  Average price per case: $31.01
  Total sales: $161,708,100

• Coors

  Cases sold: 7,635,134
  Average price per case: $19.25
  Total sales: $147,010,300

A short guide to the long history of American homebrew

America has a long history with home brewing beer. The pilgrims did it in Plymouth because it was considered safer than the questionable water of their adopted home. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson made beer at Mount Vernon and Monticello respectively.

Home brewing fits with the American sensibility: It’s an improvised, self-sufficient, penny-wise activity that was carried westward with the pioneers. Brewing remained an important part of American society right up until 1920, when the 18th Amendment, more commonly known as Prohibition, outlawed “the manufacture, sale, or transportation” of alcohol for “beverage purposes.”

Now, true, Prohibition couldn’t stop home brewing, but it certainly forced it underground. And even the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 couldn’t bring it back. When the hangovers lifted, it must have come as a surprise to find that while the new statutes allowed for home winemaking, they neglected to include beer brewing, an activity that continued to be illegal for the next 46 years.

Finally, in 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed H.R. 1337, which allowed for up to 200 gallons of beer for personal use per calendar year to be produced per household. Even before the law went into effect in February 1979, some former underground brewers in Colorado formed the American Homebrewers Association (AHA).

Home brewing fits with the American sensibility: It’s an improvised, self-sufficient, penny-wise activity that was carried westward with the pioneers.

America’s restrictive laws on home brewing prior to H.R. 1337 seemed to enforce some narrow tastes when it came to beer. In 1978, the year President Carter brought home brewers out of the closet, there were only 89 breweries in the U.S. Plenty of people across the country had continued making beer clandestinely since Prohibition, but few were able to pass along their experience to other would-be brewers. With the door opened and national organizations like the AHA in place, hobbyists were able to communicate with each other, repeating successes and avoiding mistakes. Odd and interesting experiments yielded both good and bad results, and the narrow range of tastes offered by Budweiser, Miller and Coors began to seem increasingly less satisfying.

In 1982 the annual Great American Beer Festival began in Colorado. In the ’80s and ’90s, driven in large part by the increasing ambitions of hobbyists, microbreweries began budding up across the country making innovative, traditional, and forgotten styles of beer that further stretched the American palate. Today there are well north of 2,000 small, medium and large-scale breweries in the U.S. According to the Brewers Association, the trade organization representing the majority of American breweries; you’d have to go back to 1887 to find a time when there were more. Though craft sales remain a small percentage of total beer sales (something like 5 percent), they command enough attention that large national brands have generated lines to appeal to the craft beer consumer—I’m looking at you, Rolling Rock and Black Rock.

As testament to how far home brewing has come, even the current President has gotten in the game, recently making a honey ale with honey from the White House beehives. Considering the number of founding fathers that have brewed, it’s amazing that the Obamas are apparently the only First Family to enjoy home brewed beer in the Oval Office.

]]> http://newhomebrew.com/blog/2013/05/15/brewing-it-for-ourselves-a-short-guide-to-the-long-history-of-american-homebrew/feed/ 0 http://newhomebrew.com/blog/2013/03/25/beer-brewing-and-carbon-dioxide-recycling/ http://newhomebrew.com/blog/2013/03/25/beer-brewing-and-carbon-dioxide-recycling/#comments Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:33:33 +0000 Mike Kitner http://newhomebrew.com/blog/2013/03/25/beer-brewing-and-carbon-dioxide-recycling/ Automation World Director of Content David Greenfield was telling me recently about one of his hobbies and passions: home-brewing beer. To hone his skills and test drive an alternative career some 20 years ago, he volunteered to work in a local microbrewery. One of his jobs involved washing out the interior of fermentation tanks. Because yeast consumes oxygen and expels large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) during the fermentation process, getting into a tank to scrub it out can be a dangerous activity. “You have to stick your head out of the tank regularly between scrubs to make sure you get enough oxygen,” he told me. “You always have to have two guys on hand, in case one passes out.”

But CO2 is also useful in the beer brewing process, aside from the obvious delights of carbonation. Prior to filling, beer bottles are purged with CO2 to remove air and protect the taste against oxidation. Considering this application of CO2, wouldn’t it make sense for the CO2 produced in the fermentation process to be reclaimed and used for this bottle-purging purpose? Apparently yes, but it’s not easy.

Fermentation often produces toxic, odorous sulfides, which can foam up into the piping and contaminate reclaimed CO2.

An application brief from Applied Analytics (AAI), a global manufacturer of industrial process analysis instruments, explains the biggest challenge: Fermentation also often produces toxic, odorous sulfides, which can foam up into the piping and contaminate the reclaimed CO2.

“In order to continue using the great resource of CO2 byproduct, yet avoid contaminating the bottled beer with foul-smelling toxins, the reclaimed gas is run through sulfide removal skids. However, sulfide breakthrough can occur if the gas does not spend enough time in the scrubber,” according to the brief.

“Employees are sometimes tasked with sniff-testing the reclaimed CO2, but this is an unhealthy practice and is too discrete to vigilantly prevent product contamination. An automatic, continuous analysis solution is required.”

In the brief, AAI engineers describe how their automated solution, the OMA Process Analyzer works to immediately divert contaminated CO2 from use in bottling, as well as to provide feedback control for the sulfur removal processing time.

The Method

The OMA Process Analyzer is used to continuously measure concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and dimethyl sulfide (DMS) in the fermentation byproduct gas. This system uses a full-spectrum UV-Vis spectrophotometer to detect the absorbance of sulfides in the reclaimed CO2 stream—an ideal method, as CO2 has zero absorbance in the UV spectrum. The OMA provides fast-response alarms to high-concentration threshold, which allows immediate diversion of contaminated CO2.

For this application, the OMA is typically multiplexed to automatically cycle analysis between multiple sampling points. This maximizes system value by allowing one unit to monitor the raw fermentation gas entering the reclamation system, gas coming off the acid aldehyde scrubbers, and the bottling gas coming off of the sulfur removal beds—all with sample stream switching at user-defined intervals.

Using the OMA system, a brewery enables intelligent CO2 reclamation, which continuously prevents sulfide contamination of the beer product.

Applied Analytics systems are used primarily to measure real-time chemical concentrations in liquid or gas process streams, as well as physical parameters like color, calorific value and purity. AAI will be exhibiting its newest systems at two upcoming events. Look for them at the 58th ISA Analysis Division Symposium in Galveston April 14 – 18, 2013, in Galveston, Texas and at the ISA Calgary Show April 17-18, 2013 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

To read more about the OMA Process Analyzer and the technology used, visit AAI’s website.  

The Attorney General’s office says home-brewing is legal with a permit from the Department of Revenue.

But there’s a catch.

State tax officials say the law doesn’t allow permits specifically for home-brewers.

Breaking the law is a misdemeanor, with a fine of up to $500 and jail time of up to six months.

There is some good news.

A state representative from Bay St. Louis is likely to introduce a bill in the next legislative session to exempt home-brewers from permits and excise taxes.

OK, so Brookings home-brewing beer barons don’t turn out big wooden barrels of ales and stouts; but they sure do have a barrel of fun making small batches for themselves and their beer-drinking buddies.

Carey Bretsch and Mike Lapka, engineering professionals who work together at Civil Design Inc. (CDI) in Brookings, are professionals in the world of amateur brewing for home consumption. They’ve been in the home-brewing business for about nine years. Lapka’s won a “couple blue ribbons” for his brewing skills, but he claims no special secrets for turning out good brewskis for drinking at home.

He said, “There’s books and the Internet. But it’s trial and error.”

However, the brewer duo did sit down for a visit with The Brookings Register this past week and share some basics of homemade beer.

From start to finish to drinking, the time for turning out a good brewski can be a moving target. They may take as long as two to three months to turn out a quality batch of home brew.

“It’s just a lot of waiting,” they both agreed. They brew the equivalent of about two cases (48, 12-ounce bottles) per batch. Home-brew can’t be sold, but CDI employees “participate in the brewing process.”

Lapka explained, “If they want to brew a batch, they just basically pay for the ingredients and then we’ll brew it up.”

Bretsch said, with a smile, “It’s our employee incentive program. It’s a morale booster. It’s a teambuilding exercise.

“When we built this facility (CDI) here, we set it up so that we could brew beer in the garage.”

He added, “The philosophy is that it takes beer to make beer. So while we wait around for the beer to reach its next stage, we sit around and consume a beer or two from a previous batch.”

Lapka said they usually start in October and November: “We might brew a batch a week for a month. That gets your system started.” Bretsch added, “It gives us enough beer so that we can brew another batch.“

He and Lapka are willing to brew whatever their contributors of ingredients provide. Wheat beer and stout are popular . Lapka continues his own quest for a brew that comes close to Guiness.

To make five gallons of beer requires about 10 pounds of grains, some hops and yeast. Ingredients are easy to come by and can be ordered from readily available suppliers.

The average cost of a homebrew for the duo is “about a buck a bottle.” When they first started brewing, they used plastic pop bottles. Both pointed out that some commercial brewers use plastic bottles.

However, Bretsch noted, “The good beers use glass; we pretty much use all dark glass right now.“

Bretsch added that Lapka has built much of the equipment that they use. They have a capper, and they sterilize and reuse bottles. They then insert CO2 and condition the beer and then put it into bottles using a “beer gun.” But first they put the beer in kegs.

Bretsch explained, “It’s a two-part system. The beer gun actually squirts CO2 into the bottle first. Then you drop the beer in and then cap it.” Bottle vs. keg

One question is often raised in the world of both commercial beer and home brew: Is there a change when beer goes from keg to bottle or can? Can a bottled beer taste as good a draft beer? Sometimes.

Lapka said, “There is a slight difference. It depends on your beer. I think a dark stout tastes better in a bottle after about a year than it does in a keg.

“In a keg it has a tendency of overcarbonating. In a bottle it won’t overcarbonate, because you have such a small volume of it. In a stout you don’t want it to be overcarbonated. The best stouts we’ve had are a year or two old.” Bretsch added, “Typically, the darker, heavier beers, usually they’re a lot better after they’ve aged for a while. Usually a year is a good aging period for a beer like that.“

Lapka explained, “We try to stay away from the lagers. They’re really hard to make because they’re temperature controlled. And they require a special yeast. And you can taste your mistakes so much easier, because there’s very little other taste to hide it.“

And “light beers“? Don’t even think about it. They laugh about an episode involving a request for a light beer. They pretty much brewed a regular beer and got it to the light stage by watering it down.

Carey and Mike really like the stouts; a big reason is that stouts allow for much more flavor variety, such as a hint of coffee. Home brews have about a 6 to 9 percent alcohol range. That can be raised even higher by adding more sugar, up to a point.

If there’s a month that’s tied to beer drinking, it’s got to be October, with its beer festivals across the nation and in parts of Europe, especially Germany. Maybe that’s why October seems to be a good month to brew beer.

Sunday afternoon in Brookings found Joe Portz and Chris Bessler hard at work in Portz’s kitchen making a total of 12 gallons of home brew: five gallons of Kinderweisse, “a lightly soured ale, once synonymous with wheat beer in Europe, but now a living dinosaur of a style. It’s a grainy pils and wheat malt character underscored with gentle earthy lemon-like sourness that used to be a common thread in beers like this“; five gallons of Belgian Strong Golden Ale; and two gallons of Aztec Mexican Cerveza, with “light golden color, clean refreshing taste with a crisp finish, best served ice cold with a slice of lime.“

In about six weeks, Joe and Chris will be ready to pound down a pint or two of their new brew.

Portz is the more experienced brewer of the two, with about 15 years’ experience in the homebrew business.

Bessler is a rookie, trying his hand at brewing for the first time. But he isn’t brand-new to turning out alcoholic beverages at home: he’s made wine. And in a fashion, his wife, September, got him started in beer brewing: The Aztec Mexican Cerveza was a gift from her. It’s a simple all-in-one kit for someone who wants to get started in brewing beer at home: “Mr . Beer.“

Meanwhile across town Richard Drawdy and Thijs Hammink, two members of the South Dakota State University Brew Club, were in Drawdy’s garage turning out about 10 gallons of a Hop-forward Pale Ale based on a recipe by Nebraska Brewing Company’s Cardinal Pale Ale. Drawdy, an accountant at Daktronics, is in his second year in the SDSU club, which has about 15 members. He said they meet “every second Thursday at about 7 p.m. set up through our Facebook page ’SDSU Brew Club.’” The Club has been approved by the Student Association; its members include faculty, students and a cross-section of the Brookingsarea community.

Hammink, 24, an SDSU student majoring in electrical engineering technology, has been home brewing for about two years. Like Bessler, he started out with a Mr. Beer kit.

The club does enough bulk buying of brewing ingredients, such as 50-pound bags of grain, to keep costs down. And they re-use yeast, which might surprise someone unfamiliar with home brewing. Drawdy explained, “It’s a living organism; it’s basically just populating and living and growing in your fermenter; so you can take what you’ve done in one batch and actually split it three ways into three more batches. You keep going and going.“

While they keep going and going, they won’t even come near the home-brewing legal limit of 200 gallons a year: “It’s pretty tough to reach that volume. If we did that, we’d have to be brewing every weekend,” Drawdy explained.

But the beauty of home brewing is in the quality, not the quantity. Good beer, like all good things in life, should be enjoyed in moderation.

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If you go: The Club will be meeting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13, at Heist Brewing, 611 Second St. S., for a brewing event. It’s open to the public.