When it comes to making beer at home, there are nearly as many types of brewers as there are kinds of beer. There’s the occasional dabbler. There’s the dedicated hobbyist. There’s the serial competitor. There are even those who have transcended the title of brewer, like Tampa’s Jeff Gladish. In addition to being a multiple award-winning beermaker with more than two decades’ experience crafting his brews, Gladish is also a Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Master Judge whose knowledge, experience and palate can make or break a competition entry.
“I tend to get into hobbies to the extreme,” he says.
Of course, not everyone gets into homebrewing to become a competition judge (or even a competition winner); the thing, though, is no matter what a hobby brewer’s intent is or might be, they pretty much all start from exactly the same place: a brewing kit.
“A friend of mine brought me a kit back from England,” says Gladish of how his own beer adventure began. “I brewed it, then I brewed a second kit from her. It tasted exactly like it was supposed to. It wasn’t very good, but I was using canned [grain and malt] extract that had traveled from the UK with a packet of yeast attached to the lid.”
As one might expect, Gladish’s equipment and technique have evolved over the years. But new homebrewers generally cut their teeth the same way, often using extracts in place of whole malt and hops before moving on to raw ingredients as their confidence level increases.
Rather than picking up a kit at the local liquor shop or big-box food retailer, Gladish recommends a visit to the specialists — stores that focus on providing equipment and ingredients to dedicated homebrewers. In addition to better gear, they can also provide newbies with invaluable tips, help and knowledge.
“I would say going to a supplier like Southern [Brewing and Winemaking in Tampa] and Beer & Winemaker’s Pantry in Pinellas would be a better bet,” says Gladish. “You get better advice.”
Speaking of advice, Gladish also recommends stopping by a meeting of any of the multiple homebrewing clubs in Tampa Bay, either before or after brewing a batch. The American Homebrewers Association online forums are also a great place to find support and answers.
Whether someone wants to win a gold medal or just experience the pleasure of sharing something they made themselves around the picnic table, everyone starts at the same place, and as Gladish says, anyone really can do it.
“Oh yeah, definitely,” he says. “You can make just as good a beer at home as you can buy… it’s definitely satisfying.”
A great beginner’s beer: “I would say go with an American pale ale or something along those lines,” Gladish says. “Good, clean, dry yeast is readily available for that, and it’s probably something that [a first-time brewer would be] used to drinking.”
Rookie mistakes: “Probably hot fermentation is the biggest mistake new brewers will make. They’ll ferment at room temperatures in the 70s, and that generates a lot of off flavors. The simplest way to combat it is to build what’s called a swamp cooler — you put the fermenter into a bucket of water with a towel around it, use evaporation to cool it. And cleanliness and sanitation are very, very important, too.”
THE PROCESS — A PRIMER
Specialized equipment aside, brewing a beer like an American ale at home comes down to four ingredients — malt extract, hops, yeast, and water — and four steps.
1. Brewing. The “hot” part of the process. Malt extract (called wort) and hops are boiled in water.
2. Cooling/Fermentation. The mix is allowed to cool, then put into a fermenter with yeast. Beer will ferment in the sealed container for up to a couple of weeks.
3. Priming/Bottling. When the beer has fermented, priming sugar is added to carbonate it in the bottle.
4. Aging/Conditioning. Homemade beer is usually good to go after about a month of bottle aging (though some brewers recommend waiting longer for better flavor), during which time the yeast ferments the priming sugar to create carbon dioxide. After that, it's time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
(Source: beersmith.com, beersyndicate.com)
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2015.
