Last Christmas, my fiancee and I gave ourselves the gift of home-brewing equipment. Since then, we've brewed at least five five-gallon batches of beer — about 50 bottles per batch. We made an oatmeal stout, a Scottish ale, a Hefeweizen (wheat beer) and a mango-flavored ale. We also had one batch of watermelon-flavored ale that got skunked, resulting in bottles that exploded each time we opened them. Despite the mess, it's safe to say we've got the home-brew bug. And we're not the only ones. Lots of people all over Tucson are brewing their own beer.
Some are using beer kits that come with priming sugars and malt extracts packaged neatly in plastic bags, while others are brewing from scratch, grinding and cooking their own grains.
Home-brewing is a relatively new pastime in this country.
Brewing beer at home was illegal in the United States until 1978, when Congress passed an act repealing federal restrictions on making small amounts of beer at home — though states were still free to regulate home-brewing, and Arizona didn't legalize the practice until a decade later.
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Since then, home-brew stores have sprung up in cities across the country. There's also a number of home-brew magazines and Web sites.
"It's no fun (brewing solo)," says Austin Santos, who co-owns university-area pizza joint 1702, which, with 52 beers on tap, has developed a reputation as the place with the best beer selection in town.
Most home-brewers like to drink while they brew, and Santos says he is no exception.
"Whatever style of beer that we're planning on brewing, we pick up a few bottles of a similar style (commercial beer)."
Eddie Yueh is the president of Mr. Beer, a Tucson-based company that sells beer-making kits in 15,000 stores nationwide, including big chains like Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Yueh says most of his customers are men — and women who buy kits for their men.
"Bed Bath & Beyond is our No. 1 customer, and how many men shop there?" he asks.
Mr. Beer has been in business since 1998, and Yueh says sales have grown exponentially each year, thanks in large part to robust Internet orders.
Gary Wilder, who opened Brew Your Own Brew 15 years ago, says his North Campbell Avenue business has grown by an average of 10 percent a year over the last five years. He says home-brewed beer is simply better than the store-bought stuff.
"I get people in the store saying, 'I cannot buy what I can make at home.' "
Christmas is Wilder's busiest time of year.
"It's a hobby that keeps giving back," he says. "We pile up on (kits) at Christmas time."
Mr. Beer two-gallon home-brewing kits start at $29.95, while Brew Your Own Brew's five-gallon kits start at $74.95.
Maybe this is the year you give yourself the gift of homebrew?
Start with a kit
If you aren't up for all grain brewing, you can buy a Holiday Merry Spiced Ale kit at Brew Your Own Brew, 2564 N. Campbell Ave. The kit costs $42 and includes all the necessary grains and spices, including cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and orange peel.
Meet Mr. Beer
Mr. Beer will offer samples of its beer at BevMo, 4646 N. Oracle Road, Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Mr. Beer's top brewer, Eric Greene, will be on hand to answer questions about the company's home-brewing kits. You can find out more about Mr. Beer home-brewing kits at www.mrbeer.com
TUCSON HOMEBREW CLUB
The Tucson Homebrew Club caters to brewers of all skill levels. Members brew together and meet to share the fruits of their labor.
To join, e-mail club president Bill Thomke at bill@tucsonhomebrew club.com, or just show up to a meeting, held on the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at Boondocks Lounge, 3306 N. First Ave. For more information go to www.tucsonhomebrewclub.com.
BREWING CLASSES
Brew Your Own Brew offers classes for beginner brewers, as well as extract brewers looking to make the leap to all grain brewing. Classes are usually held on Thursday evenings. To sign up, call 322-5049. For more information, go to brewyourownbrew.com
GLOSSARY
Air lock
A device that contains water and is mounted in the lid of the fermenter. The air lock allows carbon dioxide to escape and blocks outside air from entering.
Chiller
Copper tubing is wrapped into a coil and placed in the beer. Cold water runs through the coil, chilling the tubing and, in turn, lowering the temperature of the beer.
Fermenter
After the hops are added to the wort and the liquid is cooked for a set amount of time (usually one hour), the liquid is transferred to a fermenter, where it is combined with yeast, which converts the sugars to alcohol.
Mash Tun
Used to steep the grains. Grain is mixed with water and allowed to steep for a set amount of time. After the mashing is complete, the liquid mixed with the grain is allowed to slowly drain off through the bottom valve and is sent to the kettle.
Syphon
Submerge the end of the syphon into your homebrew and pump the inner tube up and down rapidly. This automatically draws the liquid up the tube and into the bottle.
Wort
The liquid in the fermenter prior to pitching the yeast. Wort becomes beer after fermentation.
John Adkisson's Tall, Dark and Toffee Holiday Spiced Ale
Ingredients:
• 8 pounds Pale Ale Malt
• 1 pound Munich Malt
• 1/2 pound Special Roast Malt
• 1/4 pound Special B Malt
• 1/4 pound Chocolate Malt
• 1 ounce Northern Brewer Hops
• 1 ounce Fuggles Hops
• 2 ounces molasses
• 2 ounces dark brown sugar
• 1 vial White Labs European Ale Yeast
• 4 ounces of apple brandy
• 1 square inch of freshly peeled ginger root
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• Zest of 1/2 orange
Directions:
Heat six gallons of water to 152 degrees. Add the water and the grains (the five malts) to the mash tun and let sit for 45 minutes:
After 45 minutes, sparge (spray) with 3 gallons of water (heated to 170 degrees) to collect six gallons of wort in your kettle.
Boil the wort for 60 minutes.
After 15 minutes, add Northern Brewer Hops.
After 30 minutes add Fuggles Hops.
After 50 minutes add molasses and dark brown sugar.
After the boil is complete, cool the wort to 70 degrees and pitch your yeast (at 65 degrees).
Meanwhile, add the ginger root, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg and orange zest to the apple brandy and let soak in it for one week while the beer is fermenting.
At the end of the week, transfer the beer to a clean container with the spiced brandy (but not the spices). Keg or bottle the beer. Yields five gallons of beer that is 5.5 percent alcohol.
