Monday, December 01, 2003  
WXPort
Feedback
 Clubs TonightHot TixBand GuideMP3sBest Music PollSki GuideThe Best '03 
Music
Movies
Theater
Food & Drink
Books
Dance
Art
Comedy
Events
Home
Listings
Editors' Picks
New This Week
News and Features

Art
Astrology
Books
Dance
Food & Drink
Movies
Music
Television
Theater

Archives
Letters

Classifieds
Personals
Adult
Stuff at Night
The Providence Phoenix
The Portland Phoenix
FNX Radio Network

   
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend

Brew by you
At Modern Brewer, home is where the art is
BY MIKE MILIARD

It was 25 years ago, in 1978. President Jimmy Carter, perhaps intuiting the sinister gastroenteric distress his brother’s Billy Beer was inflicting on the nation, decided to let the American people take matters into their own hands and signed a law legalizing the making of beer in one’s home: 100 gallons per person (200 per household) per year.

In those dark days, packies were filled with the likes of Schlitz and Schaeffer, and the most flavorful beer one could find was Heineken. But things have changed. Now, there are more than 1000 brewpubs and 500 crafter brewers from Maine to Oregon. The country is awash in beers of every hue, from pilsners to pale ales to porters. And many of them are made in kitchens. Over the past couple decades, the microbrew explosion has grown alongside a sizable boom in home brewing. You can do it, too.

Because beer, when it comes down to it, is four ingredients: malted barley, hops, water, and yeast. And, as Roger Lavoy, owner of Cambridge’s Modern Brewer, puts it, "If you can cook a bowl of soup, you can make good beer." In other words, don’t be daunted by the live yeast and the hydrometers and the flawless sterilization required. If you can follow directions, have two or three hours for the process itself (including clean-up), and can wait seven to 10 days for fermentation and another two weeks or so for priming and carbonation in bottles, you’re more than qualified to churn out five gallons (two cases or so) of the beer of your choice.

All you need is the equipment and the ingredients. Modern Brewer has it all. First-timers might want to start with the Brewer’s Best Beer Equipment Kit ($49.95), which has everything you’ll need, from brewing to bottling; all you’ll need to provide is a large stock pot, distilled or purified water, and a couple cases of bottles. For the more advanced, Modern Brewer also offers its own customized kit ($90), one that throws in niceties like a five-gallon glass carboy and more sophisticated funneling, tubing, and spigots.

As for the ingredients, the easiest thing is to start out with a kit that has everything from barley malt to bottle caps prepackaged and ready to go. Brewer’s Best makes several good kits that run $26 to $32, depending on whether they’re for, say, a pale ale, an Oktoberfest beer, or a cream ale. True Brew makes some others, and their prices are about the same. Instructions, of course, are included.

Once you get really good, you can make like resident beer pro Brad Smisloff, toss aside the starter kits, and go whole grain. Concoct your own recipes, fly by the seat of your pants. Modern Brewer boasts a wide array of aromatic malts, many imported — everything from British pale to Wyerman rye (around $1.50/pound); hops, in both pelletized and whole-leaf form (about $1/ounce); and yeast, in liquidized form ($6) or dry (about $1.50). You can also throw in additional, esoteric ingredients for weird holiday beers or Belgian Trappist styles, like juniper berries, rose hips, dried elderflower, and cardamom seed ($1–$3). The sky’s the limit. When you’re the brewer, you brew the beer you want. For inspiration, try an array of books (most $15–$20) exploring the finer points of this connoisseur’s art, or the latest issue of Brew Your Own magazine ($3.99).

Once the brewing’s done and the requisite waiting period has been frittered away, it’s time to enjoy. Sip a beer while solving a handsome jigsaw puzzle, depicting a map of the Northeast splashed with the names and logos of "New England’s Great Brewers" ($15). Or you might try your hand at Brewmaster: The Craft Beer Game ($29.95) while you quaff your latest creation. But how can you enjoy your handiwork without a Three Stooges talking bottle-opener ($6.95)?

"I’ve heard home brewing described as a very ‘soulful’ hobby," Lavoy says. "You can craft it to your exact specifications. You made it yourself. Plus, it’s so neat to give it to somebody, and they think it’s gonna taste like dishwater, and they say, ‘You made this?! I can’t believe you made this!’ "

Where to find it:

• Modern Homebrew Emporium, 2305 Mass Ave, Cambridge, (617) 498-0400.


Issue Date: November 14 - 20, 2003
Back to the News & Features table of contents
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend







about the phoenix |  find the phoenix |  advertising info |  privacy policy |  the masthead |  feedback |  work for us

 © 2000 - 2003 Phoenix Media Communications Group