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| Something's brewing By Lou Sian--[ lou@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 4:00 PM PDT It seems everyone in college knew a kid who hauled in a box of stuff one day, chattering about making his own beer. The promise was cheap beer, enough to make and drink to his heart's content. With steel kettle oddly reminiscent of mom's pasta pot, plastic buckets, thermometer, timer, keg, tubing, and visions of homebrew dancing in his head, the enterprise promised to be a practical application of biology, chemistry and physics, not to mention the pure enjoyment of drinking the very best brew on the cheap. Plus, it's very easy to do. "Ask me how hard it is to make beer," said Steven Travis, a software developer who lives in Half Moon Bay, "It's not. If you can make oatmeal - the real kind, not the instant - you can make beer." Travis' college roommate never got around to making beer, but Travis always kept it in mind that he would brew beer one day. When he settled in a place of his own, he gave it a try. He often gets together with three or four friends to brew lots of beer. It's a great way to spend a weekend, he says. "You can brew the most banal swill on the planet, and it will still taste good," Travis said. "There is no commercial source that tastes as good as home-brewing. From an educational standpoint, the process is what makes it a craft." Generally, there are four basic ingredients to making beer: barley, yeast, hops and water. Enzymes within the barley grain convert starch into sugar. Add a little yeast to feast on the sugar, and you get alcohol as a byproduct. You can see the fermentation process in action as bubbles start to form. A similar reaction makes dough rise. Like a living metropolis, the yeast population grows exponentially, expanding to the sides of the glass jar - called a carboy - and exhaling carbon dioxide gases until the population implodes and the fermentation process slows to a crawl. The result is a liquid equivalent of bread but with an alcohol kick. The hops provide the bitter flavor and aroma of the beer. It also acts as a preservative, preventing alcohol from turning into vinegar. "I make different kinds of beer, but mostly ales and a few lagers," said fellow homebrewing afficienado Aaron Dinwoodie. "The ales are easier to make, but it takes more time than the lagers. The lagers are less temperamental, though." The difference between the ales and lagers are the different kinds of yeast that are used. The yeast ferment at higher temperatures in ales, about 50 to 60 degrees Farenheit. Perhaps, because of its less temperamental nature, lagers are a beer brewed by most commercial brewers. They're brewed around the world - Germany, Czechoslavakia, Mexico, China and Japan. Lagers are known for their light, crisp and refreshing taste. For other kinds of beer like porters and stouts, the grains are roasted longer. Roasting stops the sprouting process, and depending on the amount of roasting, the beer can be light or dark in color. The barley grains are barely roasted to make light-colored Budweiser, for example, Dinwoodie said. He recently made a red copper-colored beer that was surprisingly tasty. It had some maltiness and strong flavors like a porter or a stout. After roasting, Dinwoodie slowly runs hot water over the barley grains to extract the sugar. The combination of roasted grains and hot water makes a mash that resembles oatmeal. The mashing process further activates the enzymes operating at different temperatures to convert starch into sugar. Beer makers can adjust the temperature to take advantage of the enzyme action. The mash sits in a 10-gallon Thermos-like container which is basically a large metal pot with a false bottom. The liquid trickles off the bottom in a process called sparging. "There's a word for everything in beer making," Dinwoodie said with enjoyment. The liquid from sparging is brought up to a boiling temperature. Then, the hops are added. Hops are flowers of a perennial vine that is grown in Europe, Argentina, Eastern Washington and Oregon, Dinwoodie said. The flowers are pelletized or crushed up. With hops, the malt liquid becomes a wort, a word that sounds like a throwback to medieval England when people drank grog and mead. Adding hops to the beginning of the boil leaves a bitter taste. The volatile oils that give beer its aroma are boiled away, so hops are added again at the end of the boil. "It's like cooking with sesame seed. You wouldn't taste it unless you threw some on after cooking the dish," Dinwoodie said. After boiling, the wort is cooled to 70 to 80 degrees, and a last bit of yeast is added. They're living things, so the temperature is critical. Too hot and the yeast won't thrive. Too cold, and the yeast are sluggish. As the wort continues to cool, the liquid is siphoned into a carboy, a large glass container that looks like the water bottle that sits upside down on the office water cooler. The carboy is plugged with a rubber stopper that allows carbon dioxide to escape without letting air in. The fermentation can take a few hours to a few days, depending on how badly you want to drink the beer, Dinwoodie said. While the yeast is growing and dying, sediments are being formed. The solids and sediments are allowed to settle out in a step called racking. The liquid is siphoned off again and stored in another clean carboy called a secondary fermenter for two to three weeks. Although this step is not necessary, Dinwoodie thinks it improves the taste. "If I have a party or something, it doesn't sit in the secondary fermenter for very long," he said. Once the beer is in the secondary fermenter, it can sit around for two months before bottling. After bottling, the brewer should wait for a month before drinking it. "After bottling, I tell my friends to wait for about a month because when they're drinking the last bottle, it's so good that they always lament that they should have waited," Dinwoodie said. •• TRAVIS HOPPING TO START HOMEBREWER'S CLUB ON COAST Steven Travis thinks there are homebrewers on the coast who are as passionate about their craft as he is. He would like to start a club for others who would like to hone their techniques and make the best homebrew on the coast. He envisions outstanding local brewmeisters putting the coast on the map of the homebrewing world by entering some of the hundreds of contests around the country. Last May, more than 5,000 beers were entered at the National Homebrew Competition in Denver, and twice as many people attended, says Travis. Travis belongs to a homebrew club on the Peninsula. The members talk about the different categories of beer, and follow a formal style guide used by homebrewers around the world. They put together beer tastings, both commercial and homebrew, and give each other feedback. They often go on beer tours and attend beer festivals. "The club will motivate people to brew good beer and enter in competitions," Travis said. "Two people makes a club, five would be great. Ten would be wonderful." To contact Travis, go to his Web site, halfmoonbrewer.com or e-mail him at stravis@yahoo.com. -Lou Sian |