This article appeared in the June 2005 issue of CATALYST.

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In spite of, or maybe because of, Utah’s official attitude toward booze, home-brewing in Salt Lake is a popular hobby—even with so many microbreweries,such as Uinta and Wasatch, pumping out tasty cold ones, it seems everyone knows someone that cooks up their own suds. According to Mark Alston, owner of the Beer Nut, the largest of Salt Lake’s three brewing supply stores, popularity of the hobby is rising. Around 11 years ago, Alston noticed the growing trend of home-brewing in Salt Lake City and started the Beer Nut, and more recently the Bayou, a downtown beer pub. Right now, he estimates over 1,000 active home-brewers shop his store alone. Maybe more than a few Utahns would agree with poet A.E. Housman: “Malt does more than Milton can / To justify God’s ways to man.”

Why brew your own?

Simply, taste. Let’s go back 20 years and look for a decent beer in Salt Lake. There were a couple of local breweries around making a reasonable brew, but for the most part the only beer available at grocery stores were light lagers such as Budweiser and Michelob. For the beer connoisseur, these beers have little to offer. For anything else, you had to make a trip to the liquor store, where the typical markup on beer was around 85%. Soon though, microbrews like those put out by Squatters, Uintah and Wasatch started becoming readily available in the supermarkets, but still the alcohol content was restricted to 3.2% by weight, 4.0% by volume. A truly flavorful beer can’t be had at three point. “It’s really all about flavor,” says local home-brewer Kevin Farnsworth, while buying supplies for his next batch at the Beer Nut. “You can’t get a full-bodied beer at 3.2. So you can either go to the liquor store and pay a fortune, or brew it yourself.” Farnsworth agrees higher alcohol content is really is secondary to getting a good mug of suds.

And more than just taste, there’s variety. Many excellent beers can be found at the liquor store, but for a true beer-lover, the selection is terribly limited. “You can’t get anything even like a Belgian beer at the liquor store,” says Alston, shaking his head. “Also, there are a lot of great rye beers, but they’re just not imported here.” The solution? Make them yourself. Right now, Alston is working with Rauchbeir, which is a German beer with smoked malt. Thick and hearty, this beer is something that only home-brewers in Salt Lake are likely to get a pint of.

Gene Leavitt, another local beer brewer, brews primarily for a sense of involvement and control. “It’s great to drink a beer that you’ve made,” he says. His favorite batch so far was a dark Bohemian ale, but it turned out a little too dark. “It’s like the espresso of beers,” he laughs. “I want a beer to my liking. I loved that beer, but I want to mess around with it, get it a bit lighter but keep the same flavor.” This sense of innovation and quest for perfection runs throughout the beer-brewing community and is a strong force keeping the hobby active and growing.

We’ve heard about the benefits of drinking red wine. Research shows that beer, especially dark, wholesome beer, may provide many of the same benefits. A 2002 Kaiser-Permanente study of over 120,000 men showed beer delivers protection against heart attacks, stroke hypertension, diabetes and dementia to a greater extent than red wine, white wine or spirits. In addition, unfiltered home-brewed beer is loaded with B vitamins that help the liver process the alcohol. However, beware the calories: Even one light beer per night adds up to 10 extra pounds after a year. (See www.realbeer.com/edu for more on the good and bad of beer and health.)

It’s easy, and no, you won’t go to jail

Several misconceptions surround home-brewing, among which are difficulty, cost and legality. When I handed a bottle of my first batch of home-brew to my former roommate, he asked, “Isn’t this illegal?” Then he wanted to know how I could afford all the equipment.

Even in Utah, a state known for its stringent alcohol laws and policies, home-brewers aren’t going to jail for mixing up their own suds. While not expressly legal, according to Alston, no state law deals specifically with home-brewing. Federal law permits up to 100 gallons per person to be brewed annually, far more than most people would even consider. A few years back, Alston formed a group to try to pass a bill with the state legislature which would specifically allow home-brewing in Utah. It was tabled in committee (effectively killing it), but Alston says it had a lot of support in the community. “The local police and sheriff’s department supported the bill,” he says. “They figured that home-brewing encourages people to keep their drinking at home, rather than out on the roads.” While no Utah law forbids home-brewing, the laws regarding licensing for commercial production state that any producer of an alcoholic beverage must have a license. “The law regards commercial production,” says Alston, but it is a bit vague, which is why they felt legislation was a good idea. To date, there have been no attempts to prosecute home-brewers.

Legalities aside, home-brewing is easy! “If you can cook Ramen, you can make beer,” laughs Alston. He’s right: Pretty much all that’s needed to make a your own batch of oat soda is a big stock pot, a thermometer and something you can seal up to let it ferment in. The local brew supply stores sell malt extracts, which save the beginning home-brewer the hassle of boiling out the sugars from the grain. With a good extract, anyone can make a great first batch of beer. A kit with all the necessary equipment to start brewing can cost as little as about $70. And it’s a creative hobby: Once comfortable with extracts, the more advanced brewer can move on to making teas with grains for added flavoring and finally to whole-grain brewing, which requires hours of careful boiling to get a good malt.

The hardest part is making sure everything is clean. Since making beer naturally involves letting sugary stuff sit in a warm place, any unauthorized bacteria can mean trouble. “The most common mistake is improper sanitization,” says Jamie Burnham, manager at The Beer Nut. “Any bacteria in there will cause problems. It won’t make you sick, but it’ll make your beer taste bad.” Besides contamination, sterilizing with improper chemicals, such as bleach, can leave off-flavors and funky odors in your brew.

Variations

Once you’ve made a few batches of home-brew, you might want to try making wine, too! While a bit more difficult, especially regarding sanitation procedures, making a great wine isn’t all that hard either, especially since the same equipment can be used. Primarily the biggest difference is time. A batch of beer can take as little as two weeks to be drinkable, whereas wine takes at least three months—preferably a year or more.

Nowadays the same grape juices that award winning wineries use can be bought in kits for the home winemaker. “Winemaking is making a huge surge,” says Alston. A few of Alston’s friends have even won awards using the kits in their basements. “The limited-edition kits are great. They don’t tell you where the juice is coming from to protect the wineries, but they’re always sourced from a great place,” he says. The hobby is really picking up, and there are many local and regional contests. (Visit www.beertown.org for more information on home-brewing and winemaking contests.)◆

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