February 13, 2015 at 4:42 p.m.
DIY beer: Local club adds social spin to home brewing
DIY beer: Local club adds social spin to home brewing
It was originally conconcted on rural French farms where brewers would throw in whatever was in abundance at the time and enjoy the results. Each farm had its own batch, no two were the same.
It was the first beer sampled at this month's meeting of the Brewing Innovators and Enthusiasts of Rhinelander (BIER), but it was also a fitting metaphor for the group itself.
Sitting around the large table in the back room of Lurv's Kozy Korner, was a motley crew of beer lovers. Some were young and some were old. There were husbands and wives and those who came alone. One common thread bound them all together. Each of them loves a great beer.
BIER began in 2010 when a group of brewing enthusiasts decided it might be fun to compare notes. There are no officers or club dues. It's a lot less structured than most clubs and, at its very core, it's about fun.
Club member Dennis McGill said the club is a collection of like-minded people.
"The club is just a bunch of people who were brewing beer, so we got together," he said. "Now we meet and talk about brewing. We sample each other's beer from the month before, or whatever is aging in your cellar. It's a social time. We always get a beer at the bar and order a sandwich and then try to meet somewhere we can have a back room for the meeting."
McGill started brewing just before the club's inception. Troubled by the lack of quality stouts available around town at the time, he decided to brew his own. He started small but took to it quickly.
"It's nice because you can start off real simple with a couple buckets and you can order kits online where the hard work is done for you," he said. "You add the ingredients, do a little cooking, put it in bottles and drink it. As you go along, you add a little more equipment."
John Rugotzke had a much different introduction to home brewing. He started with an entirely different product in mind, but eventually gravitated toward beer.
"My father-in-law was one of the first ones who got me started," he said. "He had made wine in the past and always talked about how much fun it was. One day, I decided to quit talking about it and decided to get into it and actually do it. I started through wine making and met various people who brewed beer, and I had a friend who brewed beer. I helped him a few times, and my tastes started to shift a little more toward the beer than the wine. I took it and ran with it from there."
The club meetings regularly include as many as 20 members. While each started with their own skill set, the local brewing community they helped foster quickly elevated their collective abilities.
"Especially with our club, the social part is a great aspect of it," Rugotzke said. "It's what keeps people coming back. We have a great mix of people and a fairly wide age bracket. There was a wide group of skill sets, but the whole group has lifted each other up. We've all gotten better at making beer. We have a lot of fun together. It's a fairly tight-knit community. If someone needs something, needs a hand with brewing beer or anything else, we help out each other. It seems like that's a common thread in the brewing community. It's a lot of friends that get together and help each other out, and enjoy the hobby."
Club members don't just offer each other advice, they'll often gather at someone's house to brew a special batch together. McGill said they've really upped their game.
"Now, most everyone in our group is all grain brewing which means we're grounding our own grain and making up our own recipes," he said. "Four years ago, my nephew got us a bourbon barrel because he worked at Brown-Forman and their distilleries down in Kentucky. We all get together in someone's yard or garage and brew 50 gallons at one time. We put it in the barrel and age it, and everyone takes their share back out so we have bourbon barrel-aged beer."
While still under the radar for the majority of beer drinkers, Rugotzke said it's a hobby that's becoming more popular, little by little.
"I think it's definitely growing in popularity," he said. "You can see the craft brew sector of professional brewing is growing, and there a lot of people who realize they can turn out something great that's as good, if not better in some cases, than what they can buy. There's sometimes a cost benefit to it and sometimes not, but overall, I think it's going to be a hobby that continues to grow."
That's why BIER is looking to add to its ranks. McGill said when they first started out, they were always looking for new members, but that effort slowly fizzled out. Now, they're looking to add more energy and fresh ideas to the club.
"When we first started out, we got out some advertising and notices," McGill said. "We got a few core members and people come and go. Last year in a meeting or two, we decided we needed some new blood. It was the same guys showing up and the same guys brewing beer, so we decided to go back to what we were doing before and see who shows up. There are a lot of home brewers out there."
Marte Smith is one of the group's most experienced home brewers. He's been at it for about 25 years and loves the creativity home brewing allows him. He said getting in touch with the club is a great way to learn more about the hobby and get some help starting out.
"Come to our home brew club," he said. "We'll teach you how. You can come watch us do it because we do live demos. We're a fun bunch of people. It's a social event first and then samples. It's for people with that common interest. We're all different and from different walks of life, but have a common interest of good beer."
Slowly, the table in the back room of Lurv's Kozy Korner filled up until no more empty chairs remained. The BIER members unholstered thermoses full of their own personal brews and filled the small sampling glasses in front of each person. Someone asked Smith for his personal favorite of all the beer he's ever brewed. He deferred to his go-to, an American Brown that he said is often on tap at his home. The rest of the group, young and old, experienced and newcomers alike, responded with one voice "All of them."
Andy Hildebrand may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.