If you go to Saturday's Brew Ha Ha event in LeClaire Park, make sure to talk to some of the people serving in the home-brewing area, booths 37 through 39. These folks could be your new best friends, and not just because they're handing you samples of their beer.
They can help you make any kind of beer you can imagine. Any beer, from a basic pale ale to the Crunchberry Lambic or the Marshmallow Porter you've always dreamt of. And you don't have to know (or care) what "alpha acid hop range" means.
"Anybody can do it," said Jim Smith, a brewer for more than a decade and owner of brewing-and-wine-making-supply store Somethings Brewn' in Galesburg. "If you can make oatmeal cookies, you can make beer."
Smith is involved in four home-brew clubs - including the Galesburg Homebrewers Association and MUGZ (the Quad Cities-based Mississippi Unquenchable Grail Zymurgists), both of which will be offering home-brewed beer at Brew Ha Ha.
If you're interested in good beer or home-brewing, you'd be well-served by attending one of these groups' meetings to learn the ropes. It's not necessary, but they'll probably be able to save you time and money.
Home brewing isn't necessarily difficult. Home-brewing kits offer a wealth of possibilities for beginners, and the quality of the ingredients is good. As Smith said, "The first beer you make is probably going to be pretty good."
"They've come a long way with the kits," said Jason Gabriel, treasurer of MUGZ and a home-brewer since 1999. "I don't think the beginning home brewer is limited to three or four types." Because of a boom in home-brewing (and craft beer in general) over the past decade, ingredients are fresher and better now, with a greater variety.
And home-brewing doesn't have to be terribly expensive or time-consuming. Equipment kits start at $50, Smith said, and with ingredient kits (starting at $20 or so for a five-gallon yield) a brewer can spend four hours or less over several weeks crafting a beer.
The primary appeal of home-brewing is that you can create beers that aren't available commercially - or that nobody's even thought of. While some bars and higher-end liquor stores offer microbrews, those beers are still created with the market in mind; somebody has to want them and buy them.
That's not true with home-brewing, and for Gabriel, the Holy Grail of home-brewing is the creation of something nobody else has done before. (He offered the example of the Marshmallow Porter, and noted that he's sampled a Kool-Aid Mead - not technically a beer, but still ... . The Crunchberry Lambic was my idea.)
"You can make any kind of beer you can imagine," Smith said. "You can make beer better than you can buy."
For Smith, the goal isn't to make the most outrageous brews but to come as close as possible to standards set by the Beer Judge Certificate Program, which establishes criteria for different styles of beer.
Gabriel said brewing can range from a few hours over several weekends to an hour-gobbling obsession. He compared it to making chicken soup: You can open a can from the grocery store and heat it up, or you can raise the chicken yourself and go from there. (Hmmmmm ... chicken beer?) "It can be as little or as much as you want it to be," he said. "There are different levels of home brewing."
While the kits make home-brewing easy, the local home-brewing clubs can give the novice access to a trove of ideas, expertise, experience, and feedback. Even better, the clubs welcome the beginner, and meetings involve - as you might expect - sampling the merchandise. "I can think of no more welcoming environment than guys sitting around on a Sunday drinking beer and talking about beer," Gabriel said.
Both MUGZ and the Galesburg club have roughly 20 members, but this weekend's event promises to swell those numbers somewhat, inspiring the inner brewer in many who attend. "Things like Brew Ha Ha really bring it out of the woodwork," Gabriel said.
The favorite beer Gabriel ever made was called Broken Spoon Oatmeal Stout, which he described as "a breakfast beer" and "liquid bread in a bottle."
Keep in mind, though, that even experienced brewers can botch a batch. Gabriel said his 38th beer was a mild ale that had virtually no alcohol and tasted like water. "It was pretty bad," he said. "I had to mix it with another beer. I couldn't bear pouring all two case of the mild ale down the drain."
Tickets to Brew Ha Ha are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate, and the event runs from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday in Davenport's LeClaire Park. For tickets, visit (http://www.wqpt.org). For more information, see the special pull-out section in this week's issue.
MUGZ meets at 2 p.m. the last Sunday of each month at Bent River Brewing Company, 1413 Fifth Avenue, Moline. For more information, visit (http://www.mugz.org).
The Galesburg Homebrewers Association meets the second Saturday of each month at 3 p.m. at Somethings Brewn', 410 East Main Street, Galesburg. For more information, call (309)341-4118.
They can help you make any kind of beer you can imagine. Any beer, from a basic pale ale to the Crunchberry Lambic or the Marshmallow Porter you've always dreamt of. And you don't have to know (or care) what "alpha acid hop range" means.
"Anybody can do it," said Jim Smith, a brewer for more than a decade and owner of brewing-and-wine-making-supply store Somethings Brewn' in Galesburg. "If you can make oatmeal cookies, you can make beer."
Smith is involved in four home-brew clubs - including the Galesburg Homebrewers Association and MUGZ (the Quad Cities-based Mississippi Unquenchable Grail Zymurgists), both of which will be offering home-brewed beer at Brew Ha Ha.
If you're interested in good beer or home-brewing, you'd be well-served by attending one of these groups' meetings to learn the ropes. It's not necessary, but they'll probably be able to save you time and money.
Home brewing isn't necessarily difficult. Home-brewing kits offer a wealth of possibilities for beginners, and the quality of the ingredients is good. As Smith said, "The first beer you make is probably going to be pretty good."
"They've come a long way with the kits," said Jason Gabriel, treasurer of MUGZ and a home-brewer since 1999. "I don't think the beginning home brewer is limited to three or four types." Because of a boom in home-brewing (and craft beer in general) over the past decade, ingredients are fresher and better now, with a greater variety.
And home-brewing doesn't have to be terribly expensive or time-consuming. Equipment kits start at $50, Smith said, and with ingredient kits (starting at $20 or so for a five-gallon yield) a brewer can spend four hours or less over several weeks crafting a beer.
The primary appeal of home-brewing is that you can create beers that aren't available commercially - or that nobody's even thought of. While some bars and higher-end liquor stores offer microbrews, those beers are still created with the market in mind; somebody has to want them and buy them.
That's not true with home-brewing, and for Gabriel, the Holy Grail of home-brewing is the creation of something nobody else has done before. (He offered the example of the Marshmallow Porter, and noted that he's sampled a Kool-Aid Mead - not technically a beer, but still ... . The Crunchberry Lambic was my idea.)
"You can make any kind of beer you can imagine," Smith said. "You can make beer better than you can buy."
For Smith, the goal isn't to make the most outrageous brews but to come as close as possible to standards set by the Beer Judge Certificate Program, which establishes criteria for different styles of beer.
Gabriel said brewing can range from a few hours over several weekends to an hour-gobbling obsession. He compared it to making chicken soup: You can open a can from the grocery store and heat it up, or you can raise the chicken yourself and go from there. (Hmmmmm ... chicken beer?) "It can be as little or as much as you want it to be," he said. "There are different levels of home brewing."
While the kits make home-brewing easy, the local home-brewing clubs can give the novice access to a trove of ideas, expertise, experience, and feedback. Even better, the clubs welcome the beginner, and meetings involve - as you might expect - sampling the merchandise. "I can think of no more welcoming environment than guys sitting around on a Sunday drinking beer and talking about beer," Gabriel said.
Both MUGZ and the Galesburg club have roughly 20 members, but this weekend's event promises to swell those numbers somewhat, inspiring the inner brewer in many who attend. "Things like Brew Ha Ha really bring it out of the woodwork," Gabriel said.
The favorite beer Gabriel ever made was called Broken Spoon Oatmeal Stout, which he described as "a breakfast beer" and "liquid bread in a bottle."
Keep in mind, though, that even experienced brewers can botch a batch. Gabriel said his 38th beer was a mild ale that had virtually no alcohol and tasted like water. "It was pretty bad," he said. "I had to mix it with another beer. I couldn't bear pouring all two case of the mild ale down the drain."
Tickets to Brew Ha Ha are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate, and the event runs from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday in Davenport's LeClaire Park. For tickets, visit (http://www.wqpt.org). For more information, see the special pull-out section in this week's issue.
MUGZ meets at 2 p.m. the last Sunday of each month at Bent River Brewing Company, 1413 Fifth Avenue, Moline. For more information, visit (http://www.mugz.org).
The Galesburg Homebrewers Association meets the second Saturday of each month at 3 p.m. at Somethings Brewn', 410 East Main Street, Galesburg. For more information, call (309)341-4118.
