Students brew up own brands of beers

Situated in limbo between several overstuffed recliners and a spacious kitchen wafting the scent of sautéed onions, senior Mark Breiner's dining table was jam-packed with an odd assortment of bottles, buckets, instruments, and a large sack of grain. Boxes of brown beer bottles were arranged on the floor along the wall, their labels partially torn off or removed entirely as Breiner began to explain the process involved in his new hobby.

Breiner and two of his roommates, seniors Matt Brokaw and Matt Singer are a band of brewers who have decided that making beer is more fun than buying it.

"The best part about it is the bottling process," Singer said. "When you cap that bottle, Bam."

Breiner agreed.

"You know the next week you're going to be enjoying it," Breiner said.

When he made his first batch in August, Breiner ordered a brewing kit online, but also said a store called How Do You Brew, located off of Paper Mill Road, was a valuable resource for him.

Joe Gallo, who runs the store with his wife, estimated that a similar kit costs between $75 to $135. He also said an extract kit would cost from $20 to $50.

Senior Cory Gordon has always been fascinated with trying new kinds of beer. He began his home brewing experiment when he got a brew kit for free from his brother-in-law, who didn't have room for it in a new apartment.

"I still have a few beers from our first brew, which we bottled on the fifth of September, so we're going on just about two months now," he said. "I've always really been interested in microbrews and just anything outside the normal when it comes to beer."

Both Gordon and Breiner said they are keen on developing their own specific taste for their beers, one they could eventually attach to a label, which meant advancing from store-bought extracts to doing all the steps themselves.

To achieve this, Breiner said they had to  advance to a new level in brewing that includes cracking and rinsing the grain and extracting the sugar, in addition to the steps they were already doing — boiling the mixture together with hops, cooling it down and adding the yeast.

"It's the same basic premise, it just adds this whole other element where you're in control of the ingredients as opposed to just opening a can where somebody else controlled what went into that can," Breiner said. "We can concoct our own beer that we can call ours — it's not some formulated recipe."

Gordon had a similar goal.

"Eventually we want to do our own recipe entirely," he said. "It's like chemistry. You kinda pick this and that and see what you come up with."

Gordon, Breiner and his roommates all stressed the importance of cleanliness and sterilizing anything that might come in contact with the beer.

"We have to sanitize each bottle individually," Brokaw said.

Breiner and his roommates thought extensively on their own labels and said they had even thought about names for their group.

"We kind of did our first batch late in the night, so we call ourselves the Midnight Brewers, and we have three batches that are in bottles right now," he said.

Brewing with other people was a common theme amoung Breiner and the Midnight Brewers, but also with Gordon, who said he brewed his beer with a fraternity brother.

Breiner said brewing with a group helped because shared enthusiasm was part of what got them going.

"If anyone's considering doing it they should probably find someone else, or two other people," Singer said. "It makes it more fun and everything so much easier."

"A lot of the tasks are pretty tedious, and when you have multiple people it's more efficient," he said.

While Breiner said getting people interested in brewing was fairly easy, he also did not encourage home brewing for those who are underage.

Gallo also said he doesn't encourage underage brewers if they come into his store.

"I discourage students from buying. Legally, I don't have to card people, but if I think they're under 21, I will," he said. "There's no law against me selling them stuff because I sell no alcohol. But I discourage it, which is one reason I try not to advertise in any publication related to students."

Both the Midnight Brewers and Gordon said one popular belief is that they save money by brewing their own beer.

 "It's more of a hobby than a cost saver," Brokaw said. "It's actually probably cheaper to buy alright beer. Then again, if you consider the fixed cost as the price of the hobby, then everything from then on averages about $29 to $30 for a five gallon batch of 54 bottles."

Breiner said brewing has also led them to have a greater appreciation for interesting beers. They have been venturing into different types themselves and their next brew will be a pumpkin ale.

Gordon and the Midnight Brewers said they look forward to future brews. The Midnight Brewers are currently brewing hard cider, and have scraped out a pumpkin for this up-and-coming fall variety.

Gordon said he's looking forward to correcting mistakes made in their second brew.

"Our second brew was a little more complicated, and we misread the labeling," he said. "It was a holiday ale, and had coriander, orange peel, cinnamon and some chocolate in it."

Gordon is going to try again though.

 "We know what we did wrong, and we're trying to take baby steps to our own recipe," he said.