The craft beer craze isn't going anywhere, and now it's easier than ever to roll up your sleeves and take part. From Belgians and IPAs to porters and stouts, learn how to brew your favorite beers right on your stovetop with the expert advice of Pat McCabe from Bethlehem's Keystone Homebrew Supply.
The Basics
“Beer is really big in the Lehigh Valley right now,” says McCabe. “People go out and try something, and they think, ‘I'd like to make this. How hard is it?' Relatively easy.”
Most people already have the stove and 16-quart pot where the magic of brewing takes place. An equipment kit from Keystone will set you up with the primary fermenter, bottling bucket, airlock and all the other tools of the trade needed to start your first batch.
After a $65 investment in the True Brew Equipment Kit, ingredient kits run from $35 to $85 and produce about two cases of beer. So, in addition to reveling in your creative powers, you get the beer you love best for a half or a third of the cost.
Most beginners start out with extract brewing, and this was McCabe's go-to method for the first 15 of his 25 years as a brewer. Using a malt extract that cuts out the mashing part of the beer-making process, extract brewing is much faster than all-grain and still produces a high-quality product. Extract and water are boiled on the stove, cooled and added to the fermenter with more water and yeast, fermented for about 10 days, then bottled and left to carbonate for two weeks before the beer is ready to enjoy.
Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? That said, McCabe has pointers to avoid some of the common pitfalls encountered by those new to the brew.
Tips
Most importantly, don't skip sanitizing your equipment and keeping everything clean throughout the process. It would be a shame to let a little thing like stray bacteria spoil your beer.
Another consideration is the drink's canvas, if you will: the water used to make it. “Well water is typically fine, if it tastes good to you,” McCabe says. “We don't recommend tap water.” The chlorine from the tap reacts with compounds in hops to affect flavor, and water going through a softener will have salt in it. Distilled water is out, too, because it lacks necessary minerals. Brita-filtered or purchased spring water provides a clean base to work from.
Finally, brewers have a saying: “You're not making beer, the yeast is making beer.” Proper handling of the yeast, from adding ingredients at the correct time to keeping your temperatures in the right range, is the way to get a good result.
Explore
After following along with Keystone's tried-and-true recipes a few times, it's natural to want to experiment. “That's great,” McCabe says. “That's good. You can pretty much do whatever you want. Want to make a watermelon beer? You can make a watermelon beer.”
It helps to keep a brewing journal of recipes you've tried with any notes on what you might have tinkered with to figure out what worked and what didn't. Step it up to all-grain and add a few more steps and some more equipment, and you'll be rewarded with an even better product. “There's more flexibility in marrying the flavors together,” says McCabe. “You can control different things that you can't with extract.”
Sold at Keystone and used as the textbook for McCabe's homebrewing classes at Northampton Community College, How to Brew by John Palmer is the recommended reading that holds all you need to know for a lifetime of brewing adventure. For more hands-on advancement, classes held at NCC and at Keystone get in-depth at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.
Craft Community
As you begin to explore the world of homebrewing, you'll find that it's much more than the key to stockpiles of beer, cider, wine or even honey-based mead. “We've made a lot of friends who keep coming back,” says McCabe. “We kind of partner with people and we're available to consult along the way. When we're lucky, they bring us some of the finished product.”
The pride in a good brew inspires makers to give it away to friends and family, who stoke their sense of accomplishment with glowing praise. “It's fresher, and every bit as good as what you get at the store or a bar,” McCabe says.
Often, he finds couples get into the hobby together, especially when they find out that wine isn't so hard to make, either.
With the convenience of a kit and the experts at Keystone on call, there's no excuse not to get started on a hobby that exercises creativity, brings people together and tastes great on a summer night.
The Expert:
Pat McCabe
Sales Manager
Keystone Homebrew Supply
128 E. 3rd St., Bethlehem | 610.997.0911
