Byline: Elizabeth Lazarowitz
Oct. 12--Nevermind the backwards baseball caps and the plastic cups -- this was no drunken frat kegger.
At the New York City Homebrewers Guild's latest meeting, there was talk of the characteristics of 'crystal,' 'black patent,' and 'cara-pils' malts, how to make a wort-chiller and whether 'Cascadia hops' make beer taste like grapefruit juice. In addition, of course, to lots of homemade brew.
Minus start-up costs of around $50, making your own beer can cost less than half of what you would pay in a store for premium commercial brands or microbrews. For many of these self-proclaimed 'beer geeks,' though, brewing at home is a labor of love.
'If I drink a Guinness stout, and I want it to be less 'roasty,' they won't make it that way for me,' said Phil Clarke, a veteran beer brewer and editor of the Ale Street News, referring to the beer's smoky flavor. 'If I make it myself, I can make it how I want it.'
That includes beer flavored with spruce needles and his trademark McSpoon's Scotch Ale, which he brews to be almost 'cloyingly sweet.'
Membership in the American Homebrewers Association has grown 16 percent in the past year to about 11,500, said American Homebrewers Association director Gary Glass.
Homebrewing took root in the 1960s as beer connoisseurs looked for alternatives to the standard brews being produced by the big beer companies, Glass said. A microbrewing boom in the 90s created scores of specialty beer brands, but homebrewers still prefer their own products.
'Why do people still like to cook when there are so many restaurants to go to?' Clarke said.
In a Guild member's Brooklyn backyard last Sunday, he fussed with the thermometer in a large steel pot propped on a gas turkey fryer, impatiently waiting for the water to boil so that he could add in a can of malt extract. Around him, about 15 people were trying homemade beers made with exotic flavors like hibiscus and a blend of ginger and kaffir lime leaves.
Nearby, Sean White, a baby-faced beer fan who works at a Dean & Deluca deli counter, lifted the cover off a rigged sports cooler full of 'mash' -- crushed barley malt and hot water -- letting out a musky vegetable smell.v
He and pal Adam Winkel, a computer programmer, were making a batch of 'all-grain' brew they hope to serve at the Brewtopia beer festival at the Javits Center on Oct. 20 and 21.
In 'all-grain' brewing, brewers make the wort, or unfermented beer, from scratch, so it can cost just $5 to $8 per case of beer. But it also means hours more labor, and, for Winkel, dragging a 50-lb sack of grain on the train from Westchester to his New York apartment.
For the novice brewer, a basic equipment kit costs around $40 to $50. It usually includes food-grade plastic buckets for fermenting and bottling, plastic tubing for transferring the beer, a bottle filler for obvious purposes, a thermometer, a hydrometer for measuring the liquid's density and therefore its alcohol content, and a bottle capper.
On top of that, you'll need some kitchen basics like a large stockpot and a long nylon or metal spoon.
A pre-measured kit of beer-making ingredients costs between $25 and $30. It will have malt extract (a sugar solution made from malted barley), specialty grains (which add color and flavor), hops (which give beer its characteristic bitterness), sugar (which gives it fizz), and yeast.
Two cases of new, empty bottles cost about $20, but many beer drinkers recycle bottles from store-bought beer. Caps run $2 for about 150 and may be included in a kit.
New Yorkers can legally brew up to 200 gallons of beer per two-person household each year. That adds up to a substantial 1,920 bottles of beer on the wall.
'You have to drink beer while you're making beer,' said John Naegele, a financial planner who got into beer making about 15 years ago because the initial investment was much less than for making wine. 'But there's a limit to how much, because you don't want to forget you're making it. You won't get very good beer that way.'
MCSPOON'S SCOTCH ALE
16.5 oz. Crystal malt
4 oz. British chocolate malt
1 oz. Black patent malt
($1.50/lb each = $2)
6 oz. Peat-smoked malt
($4/lb = $1)
3 lbs. M&F Wheat Dry Malt Extract
10 lbs. M&F Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
($3.33/lb each = $43)
2 oz. Northern Brewer hops
($3.50/2 oz. bag = $3.50)
1 teaspoon Irish moss
($1.19/oz. = 20 cents)
1 pack Wyeast Scottish or Irish Ale Yeast
($5 per pack = $5)
Makes: 2 cases Grand total: $55
--Recipe by Phil Clarke
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