Home-brewed satisfaction.

Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

T h r e e c h e e r s f o r b e e r

In this era of do-it-yourself everything, you'd think home-brewing would be as trendy as, say, home improvement, but making beer in the kitchen is still largely an underground activity.

Go figure, say home-brewers, most of whom probably would agree that mixing up pale ales and German weizens is far more rewarding than installing maple brierwood cabinets and travertine countertops.

"It's fun and it satisfies," says Jim Stockton, owner of the Home Fermenter Center, a Monroe Street home-brew supply shop in the Whitaker neighborhood. "And, you get to share it with your friends and family when you're done."

There's a saying among home-brewers that malted barley wants to become beer, meaning that even if you screw up, you won't screw up badly.

Ruby Larson, who owns the brewing supply company Ruby Brews, agrees. Making beer just isn't that difficult.

"Buy some malt and boil it. Throw in some hops and yeast," Larson says, and you've got beer.

The process is slightly more involved than that, but not by much. And improvements in brewing supplies, equipment and ingredients have streamlined the process. No longer do you need to spend hours slaving over a pot of boiling barley; you can make fine beer without sacrificing an entire weekend to do it.

The first step for most beginners is to buy a home-brewing kit. Stores such as the Home Fermenter and Valley Vintner & Brewer carry starter kits that cost about $100.

After the initial investment, the ingredients for a 5-gallon batch of beer cost $20 to $40. Home-brewers can pick through recipes at brewing supply stores and purchase the ingredients.

At Valley Vintner & Brewer, a Willamette Street supply store in south Eugene, a file cabinet contains recipes for a number of beers, some of them modeled after popular commercial favorites. The Reflective Puddle Ale, for instance, is a clone of Deschutes Brewery's Mirror Pond Pale Ale.

"You can make what you want, and you can make new styles and play around with ingredients," says owner Jason Carriere, who has seen plenty of saffron porters and chilli pepper stouts.

Another saying among home-brewers is that, "Making beer is not rocket science ... unless you want it to be." For some, it's all about keeping it cheap and easy, while others don't mind investing in perfection.

Mike Daglen started brewing in 1995, and says he found the craft to be highly infectious.

"Once I started, it was just like, the more I learned, the more excited I got about it," he says. "You can walk into a party with beer that you made - everyone wants to try it."

While others brew to save money - one local home-brewer says he can make beer for $1 a six-pack - Daglen doesn't care what it costs, as long as the end product is tasty. He buys the best ingredients and says he also puts a lot of himself into each batch of beer.

He has some advice for beginners: "Just jump right into it," he says. "Don't buy (your equipment) piecemeal. Buy everything together and roll with it."

Daglen doesn't brew during the summer months when higher temperatures make fermentation difficult. The rest of the year, he brews about twice a month and likes to make beer for special occasions. He recently finished a 5-gallon batch for a Halloween party. He describes the beer as "a Corona knockoff."

Although it takes roughly a month to brew a batch of beer (unless you're force-carbon- ating it in kegs) a large part of home-brewing involves waiting on the sidelines while the yeast and sugars work their magic.

The process starts with an initial brewing session that takes anywhere from a few hours to a half-day. Brewers using malt extracts can reduce the brewing time by several hours. More advanced brewers skip the extract phase and use malted barley or other grains such as wheat, oats, rye or corn in a process known as "all-grain" brewing.

All-grain brewing is more time-consuming, but it allows for greater control of the end product. Most beginners start by making extract beers and then graduate on to all-grain brewing.

After the initial brewing, beer undergoes a one- to two-week period of fermentation, followed by bottling, which can be done in an hour or two.

After that, the beer undergoes secondary fermentation or conditioning, which provides the carbonation. Conditioning typically takes anywhere from two to four weeks depending on the beer.

Most home-brewers start by making ales, but there are myriad beers to choose from, including lagers and barley wines. Some barley wines can take a year to two years to brew.

For home-brewer Nathan Elliott, a big part of making beer is sharing it with friends and family. He brews about 80 gallons a year. While some states limit the amount home-brewers can produce, Oregon puts no cap on the amount brewers can make at home, says Ken Palke, a spokesman for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

"It's fun," Elliott says of home-brewing. "And most everyone likes (my beer). I try to have three different kinds (on tap)."

Elliott enjoys Russian imperial stouts, Irish ales and other darker beers, but his friends prefer lighter brews, so he often ends up brewing several different batches. He kegs his beer in 5-gallon soda kegs, and although he still hasn't made the leap to all-grain brewing, he's moving in that direction.

"One key that everyone will tell you," he says, "is to keep everything clean. ... That's the thing that makes the difference between good beer and bad beer."

Most home-brewers are exacting when it comes to keeping their equipment clean. After boiling, everything that touches the wort (unfermented beer) or beer is carefully sanitized. Some brewers also purify their water with charcoal filters.

Many brewers, including Elliott and Daglen, belong to loosely knit home-brewing circles. They exchange brewing tips and secrets and sample each other's creations.

Larger groups, such as the Eugene-based Cascade Brewers Society, sponsor events and gatherings.

National organizations, such as the American Homebrewers Association, provide resources for the country's estimated 500,000 home-brewers.

A half-million home-brewers is not a lot when you consider that commercial brewing is a $75 billion industry. But here in Oregon, most brewing experts agree, the home-brewing population is disproportionately high. Eugene, with two retailers, is particularly well represented.

Stockton, the Home Fermenter owner, keeps a list of all his former customers who have gone on to earn jobs in the beer industry. He has tallied more than 20 names, including Jamie Floyd, a former Steelhead brewer who recently opened his own Ninkasi Brewery, and Jeff Althouse, founder of the just-opened Willamette Brewery.

The late Wild Duck brewer Glen Falconer is another home-brewing alum, along with Darron Welch, head brewer at the Pelican Pub and Brewery in Pacific City.

A full-time job in the beer industry may be the ultimate goal of some home-brewers, but others are content to continue making beer at home.

Denny Conn, a Noti home-brewer who is involved with the Cascade Brewers Society and serves on the governing committee for the American Homebrewers Association, says the Northwest is filled with talented home-brewers who have been at it for years.

"The entire craft beer movement originated here, so people got hip to (home-brewing) sooner," he says.

Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio, himself a casual home-brewer, wrote a resolution to recognize the contributions of craft brewers in Oregon and throughout the country. The resolution made reference to the spirit of independence reflected in the beers consumed by America's founding fathers.

Home-brewing is not for everyone. Carriere, the Valley Vintner & Brewer owner, says the home-brewing industry suffered a slump in the 1990s due to a glut of home-brew suppliers. He believes the hobby was oversold as an activity that everyone could get involved with.

"I think that people got carried away and started to think we were going to convert everyone," he says. "There are some people that just enjoy drinking beer."

Today, there are fewer home-brewing stores, but the industry is stronger than it used to be, says Carriere, who has seen his business grow 20 percent annually.

To help attract new brewers, Conn is hosting a brewing session for beginners at his house this weekend - Sunday has been designated National Teach a Friend to Home-brew Day by the Homebrewers Association.

Conn says most home-brewers, including himself, have fond memories of that first batch of beer they made.

"I remember I couldn't believe that it was actually going to carbonate in the bottle," he recalls.

"I remember opening one of those bottles and hearing the 'pppffft' sound and pouring it into the glass and seeing the head rise and smelling that Cascade (hops) aroma and thinking, 'I made beer.' '

MAKING HOME-BREW Wort: Home-brew starts with wort, which is made by dissolving malt extract in water, bringing it to a boil and adding hops. Advanced brewers use a more time-consuming method known as "all-grain brewing," which involves soaking crushed malted barley in hot water. The wort is cooled and poured into a fermenting container (usually a glass "carboy" or food-grade plastic container). Fermentation: It starts after yeast is added to the cooled wort. The sugars in the wort are chewed up by the yeast, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. Fermentation typically continues for five to 14 days. Bottling: To create carbonation, fermentable sugar is added to the beer, which is then transferred to bottles and capped. The fermentation of the sugar creates carbon dioxide. The process takes one to two weeks. Beer also can be transferred to soda kegs and carbonated with sugar or force-carbonated with CO2 gas, which speeds the process. Drinking: Most home-brew ales are drinkable within a month from kegging or bottling but continue to improve over the next several months to a year. Lagers typically require more extended conditioning.

HOME-BREW HAPPENINGS Demonstration: Valley Vintner & Brewer, 1699 Willamette St., will be hosting a free all-grain brewing demonstration at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. There will be an extract brewing demonstration at noon. Celebration: Saturday is Teach a Friend to Home-brew Day. For more information on local events, go to www.hbd.org/cascade/ On the Web: For more information on home-brewing, go to the American Homebrewers Society Web site at www.beertown.org