'Hobby gone wild'
By NICOLE FISK OBSERVER Staff Writer
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7/1/2007 - With the Fourth of July just around the corner, people are always looking for a new way to celebrate — whether it is by barbecuing, drinking, going to a new place to see fireworks or just spending time with family.
Members of the North Chautauqua Home Brewers Club have no need to worry. They can sit back, relax and drink their own homemade beer.
A club started in 1988, which just nine years ago had only seven or eight members left, was brought back by Steven Spears of Brocton. The club now has 33 regular members that meet on the third Wednesday of every month.
Home brewing is becoming more popular, and there are many reasons why.
Looking to home brew?
"If you can make soup, you can make beer," Spears said.
With that said, getting started with home brewing seems easy enough. Spears said people need to make sure they are truly interested in home brewing before going ahead with the process.
"People need to stay away from the corporate beers like Bud Light and Budweiser to home brew. It ends up being a lot cheaper in the long run," Spears said. "The initial costs are just the equipment in the beginning."
The first thing needed to home brew is a beer supply kit. Spears sells these at his store, Dunkirk Homebrew Supplies, for about $53. This will make an initial batch. Home brewers also need to buy a five-gallon pot and their own bottles.
Then come the actual ingredients — water, malt, hops and yeast.
The sweetness in beer comes from the sugars and starches in malt. The yeast can either be liquid or dry powder. The bitterness comes from the hops, which have been around since the 15th century. There are several different kinds of hops people can add to their home brew.
"This gives you the opportunity to experiment with style," Spears said. Some people, he said, like to use the same ingredients all the time; others like to look for something new with every brew.
But, the interesting thing about home brewing is that not even the same ingredients create the same flavor.
"Two guys will brew an identical keg, but they don't taste the same," member Jay Stoltenberg from Philadelphia said. Stoltenberg is the member who lives the farthest away, but still makes it to about seven or eight meetings every year.
There is much to learn behind the scenes of home brewing.
"There is a whole lot of science about beer," member Mike Gerholdt said. "It's not just about throwing together an alcoholic beverage."
During his beer discussion travels, Gerholdt has come in contact with a microbiologist who studies the life cycle of yeast. He has had to learn about malt and how to turn it into a soluble starch. He has also had to learn about metals and cleaners, what to use and what works best.
Quick and inexpensive
Spears said that from start to finish, brewing a beer takes, on average, about 2-1/2 to 3 hours. After that, the initial fermentation takes a few days. Two weeks later, the brew is ready for bottling. This is the most time-consuming step because the bottles need to be rinsed, sanitized, bottled and capped.
Spears said putting beer in old-fashioned soda kegs is becoming more popular to save time.
Generally, Spears said, people buy their ingredients per batch. The cheapest kit is $28.50. This makes five gallons of beer or about two cases.
"If you take a beer like Budweiser, it is about $14 a case. Times two is $28. But, the trick is to price home-brewed beer to premium beers," Spears said.
Members agree that this is the cheaper way to go.
"Realistically it's really cheap. I like the taste of good beer. I'm a self-proclaimed beer snob," Stoltenberg said.
The Club
The members of the club meet at Spears' store, located on Route 20 in Dunkirk. The meetings only last about 10 minutes and start at about 8 p.m., but a lot more goes on than just that.
Before members start to arrive, Spears gets the water boiling for the batch of beer the club will make that night. At the most recent meeting, the members came together to make a wheat beer they will drink at next month's meeting.
As people start rolling in an hour and a half or so before the actual meeting, the counter fills up with homemade beer samples as well as a variety of food. Spears said the members are never afraid to share their product with each other.
When the members walk in, their first instinct is to grab a glass off the top of Spears' counter and open the refrigerator to taste the beer they made at the previous meeting.
The meetings carry a casual tone. Laughter surrounds the room from the time the members start arriving and continues throughout the night. The members talk about about their latest experiments and any other current beer events.
One topic of interest for many members is the beer competition held at the Chautauqua County Fair. Spears said many of the members will enter and some even travel to beer festivals around the country.
Even though the club is generally more popular for males, there are two female members. Erica Snow found out about the club through a student in one of her physics classes at SUNY Fredonia. She said, "It's the story of my life being around men, starting with my older brother," which makes her comfortable being in a mostly male club.
The members are also welcoming. Two newcomers showed up at the last meeting, Bob Hasenoehrl and Ron Fisher, who heard about the club from a friend. They were told to grab a glass and join right in on the sampling.
"We have guys from all walks of life," Spears said. "This is a great thing about the club because we have business owners to factory workers and they all come together."
There are also all kinds of brewers.
"We have some people that brew at entry level and make an excellent product, and we have others who do various advanced brewing," President Dan Astry of Fredonia said.
Why join?
Club members had various reasons for joining the club. For most, it happened through getting a kit and experimenting for the first time.
This is how one of the original members of the club, Roger Britz of Fredonia, got involved. He received a kit for Christmas one year and wanted to continue.
Others just knew another member.
"A current member let me home brew. I tried it and got hooked. It was so much better than I've had in the past," member Matt Ebling of Fredonia said. "I went from drinking regular beer to darker beer. I'm really blown away by how rich home brew is."
Spears got involved with home brewing in 1995. "A friend of mine talked about making our own beer but didn't know where to get it," he said. It was only a little over two years later that Spears had taken over the club as president and describes the experience as a ''hobby gone wild.''
Spears' expertise on the subject of home brewing is noticed by club members.
"We have a wealth of knowledge of beer and wine brewing because of Steve's passion and knowledge of the products. We all appreciate that," Astry said.
Annual Events
Anyone interested in joining the club is always welcome. People can stop by Spears' store for details. Yearly dues are $20 and go toward buying things for the club. The first meeting is always free.
The club's annual Drink-n-Stink party is coming up next month. This is a party dedicated to food normally banned from homes, such as lindbergh cheese and liver and onions.
Other annual events include the making of Santa's Spice Christmas Ale by masters of the recipe Britz and Kurt Maytum of Fredonia; a chili contest, with required beer in the recipe every January or February; a St. Patty's Day party, where a hall is rented and members drink Irish beer; and a kick-off picnic every September for the official start of the home brewing season.
Members of the North Chautauqua Home Brewers Club have no need to worry. They can sit back, relax and drink their own homemade beer.
A club started in 1988, which just nine years ago had only seven or eight members left, was brought back by Steven Spears of Brocton. The club now has 33 regular members that meet on the third Wednesday of every month.
Home brewing is becoming more popular, and there are many reasons why.
Looking to home brew?
"If you can make soup, you can make beer," Spears said.
With that said, getting started with home brewing seems easy enough. Spears said people need to make sure they are truly interested in home brewing before going ahead with the process.
"People need to stay away from the corporate beers like Bud Light and Budweiser to home brew. It ends up being a lot cheaper in the long run," Spears said. "The initial costs are just the equipment in the beginning."
The first thing needed to home brew is a beer supply kit. Spears sells these at his store, Dunkirk Homebrew Supplies, for about $53. This will make an initial batch. Home brewers also need to buy a five-gallon pot and their own bottles.
Then come the actual ingredients — water, malt, hops and yeast.
The sweetness in beer comes from the sugars and starches in malt. The yeast can either be liquid or dry powder. The bitterness comes from the hops, which have been around since the 15th century. There are several different kinds of hops people can add to their home brew.
"This gives you the opportunity to experiment with style," Spears said. Some people, he said, like to use the same ingredients all the time; others like to look for something new with every brew.
But, the interesting thing about home brewing is that not even the same ingredients create the same flavor.
"Two guys will brew an identical keg, but they don't taste the same," member Jay Stoltenberg from Philadelphia said. Stoltenberg is the member who lives the farthest away, but still makes it to about seven or eight meetings every year.
There is much to learn behind the scenes of home brewing.
"There is a whole lot of science about beer," member Mike Gerholdt said. "It's not just about throwing together an alcoholic beverage."
During his beer discussion travels, Gerholdt has come in contact with a microbiologist who studies the life cycle of yeast. He has had to learn about malt and how to turn it into a soluble starch. He has also had to learn about metals and cleaners, what to use and what works best.
Quick and inexpensive
Spears said that from start to finish, brewing a beer takes, on average, about 2-1/2 to 3 hours. After that, the initial fermentation takes a few days. Two weeks later, the brew is ready for bottling. This is the most time-consuming step because the bottles need to be rinsed, sanitized, bottled and capped.
Spears said putting beer in old-fashioned soda kegs is becoming more popular to save time.
Generally, Spears said, people buy their ingredients per batch. The cheapest kit is $28.50. This makes five gallons of beer or about two cases.
"If you take a beer like Budweiser, it is about $14 a case. Times two is $28. But, the trick is to price home-brewed beer to premium beers," Spears said.
Members agree that this is the cheaper way to go.
"Realistically it's really cheap. I like the taste of good beer. I'm a self-proclaimed beer snob," Stoltenberg said.
The Club
The members of the club meet at Spears' store, located on Route 20 in Dunkirk. The meetings only last about 10 minutes and start at about 8 p.m., but a lot more goes on than just that.
Before members start to arrive, Spears gets the water boiling for the batch of beer the club will make that night. At the most recent meeting, the members came together to make a wheat beer they will drink at next month's meeting.
As people start rolling in an hour and a half or so before the actual meeting, the counter fills up with homemade beer samples as well as a variety of food. Spears said the members are never afraid to share their product with each other.
When the members walk in, their first instinct is to grab a glass off the top of Spears' counter and open the refrigerator to taste the beer they made at the previous meeting.
The meetings carry a casual tone. Laughter surrounds the room from the time the members start arriving and continues throughout the night. The members talk about about their latest experiments and any other current beer events.
One topic of interest for many members is the beer competition held at the Chautauqua County Fair. Spears said many of the members will enter and some even travel to beer festivals around the country.
Even though the club is generally more popular for males, there are two female members. Erica Snow found out about the club through a student in one of her physics classes at SUNY Fredonia. She said, "It's the story of my life being around men, starting with my older brother," which makes her comfortable being in a mostly male club.
The members are also welcoming. Two newcomers showed up at the last meeting, Bob Hasenoehrl and Ron Fisher, who heard about the club from a friend. They were told to grab a glass and join right in on the sampling.
"We have guys from all walks of life," Spears said. "This is a great thing about the club because we have business owners to factory workers and they all come together."
There are also all kinds of brewers.
"We have some people that brew at entry level and make an excellent product, and we have others who do various advanced brewing," President Dan Astry of Fredonia said.
Why join?
Club members had various reasons for joining the club. For most, it happened through getting a kit and experimenting for the first time.
This is how one of the original members of the club, Roger Britz of Fredonia, got involved. He received a kit for Christmas one year and wanted to continue.
Others just knew another member.
"A current member let me home brew. I tried it and got hooked. It was so much better than I've had in the past," member Matt Ebling of Fredonia said. "I went from drinking regular beer to darker beer. I'm really blown away by how rich home brew is."
Spears got involved with home brewing in 1995. "A friend of mine talked about making our own beer but didn't know where to get it," he said. It was only a little over two years later that Spears had taken over the club as president and describes the experience as a ''hobby gone wild.''
Spears' expertise on the subject of home brewing is noticed by club members.
"We have a wealth of knowledge of beer and wine brewing because of Steve's passion and knowledge of the products. We all appreciate that," Astry said.
Annual Events
Anyone interested in joining the club is always welcome. People can stop by Spears' store for details. Yearly dues are $20 and go toward buying things for the club. The first meeting is always free.
The club's annual Drink-n-Stink party is coming up next month. This is a party dedicated to food normally banned from homes, such as lindbergh cheese and liver and onions.
Other annual events include the making of Santa's Spice Christmas Ale by masters of the recipe Britz and Kurt Maytum of Fredonia; a chili contest, with required beer in the recipe every January or February; a St. Patty's Day party, where a hall is rented and members drink Irish beer; and a kick-off picnic every September for the official start of the home brewing season.
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