Terre Haute home brewers club highlights craft beer growth

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - Adam Evinger soon will help launch a microbrewery. Fifteen years of home brewing beer with his dad, Mike, helped prepare him. They're pretty good at it. Trophies in their workshop are proof.

They haven't forgotten their initial home brewing attempts, though.

"Early on, you're just trying to produce something that's fizzy and has booze in it," Adam said, with a laugh.

"And doesn't explode," Mike added, chuckling.

Nowadays, their home brewing has gained some precision and sophistication. The Evingers experiment with flavors and styles, tweaking their recipes by adding or subtracting just a half-ounce of one of beer's four main ingredients - hops, malt, yeast and water. "It takes some time and experience to know what that half-an-ounce is going to do," Mike said.

"It's a game of patience," Adam said.

Lots of people are participating. More than 1.2 million Americans brew beer at home, according to the American Homebrewers Association. That includes about three dozen members of the Wabash Valley Fermentation N Ale Club and, undoubtedly, other residents of the Terre Haute area. The organization welcomes "anybody that just likes good beer," said Dustin Strole, the club vice president. "And there's some patience that goes with (home brewing). It's not an overnight process."

Indeed, the brewing art dates back to, at least, 5000 B.C. in Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Middle East. Some of America's founding fathers - namely Benjamin Franklin and presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson - brewed some beer. Decades after Prohibition, another president, Jimmy Carter, signed House Resolution 1337 into law in 1978, legalizing home brewing in the U.S. Some states delayed the legalization, and Indiana finally OK'd home brewing in 1985.

Today, the popularity of commercial craft beer - unique ales and lagers made by small breweries - has expanded Americans' tastes beyond mass market beverages and likewise heightened the interest in home brewing.

"The craft brewing industry definitely has ignited home brewing," said Jean Jensen, research scientist and brewing chemist at Purdue University's Department of Food Science. "Just look at all of the 'clone beer' recipes available."

Those recipes mimic popular brands, allowing home brewers to "clone" their favorites such as a Samuel Adams lager, Newcastle brown ale or Guinness stout.

The home brewing fascination even reached the Oval Office. President Obama, "inspired by home brewers across the country," bought a home brewing kit in 2011 and led a group effort with his staff to craft a White House Honey Ale and a White House Honey Porter, believed to be the first beers brewed inside the executive mansion.

Back in Terre Haute, Fermentation N Ale Club members brew in basements, garages and kitchens. Some use a basic kit, costing around $100. Others employ more elaborate equipment, investing as much as $1,000 or more. A brewer who falls in the middle might spend $30 to $40 for a batch of ingredients that will produce 50 to 60 bottles of beer. Some batches take three to four weeks to finish, others three months to a year. Home brewers pursue their hobby for a variety of reasons - its artisan hipness, its cost savings in the long run and its resemblance to a chemistry experiment.

"That initial, 'Because why?' was because it's cool," said Ross Cadick, a 44-year-old club member. After gaining experience, though, he enjoys the creativity.

"It's just fun and it's a challenge," said Cadick, a history teacher. "It's like, 'Can I make something that's good and interesting?'" Two of his recent creations were a Russian imperial stout (which features a higher gravity, or density) and a milk stout (with a pinch of non-fermentable lactose for added sweetness).

Cadick brews under his carport, so his house isn't filled with the pungent aroma of his three- to four-hour process. He typically makes "all-grain" beer, using dry malted grains, rather than liquid extracts. Basic home brewing kits include liquid extracts, which Cadick has on hand, too.

Master the basics first

Home brewers develop their own routines, but beer making follows standard procedures. Malt is soaked in water to create a sweet liquid known as "wort." The sugary wort is then boiled along with hops, a bitter grain that tames the malt's sweetness. When the boil is complete, the wort gets chilled with a cooling coil. Yeast is added to start fermentation, carbonating the beer and converting sugars to alcohol.

"It's always best to master the basic ingredients first," said Jensen, the Purdue chemist.

Then, brewers can add their own twist by flavoring the beer with fruits, nuts, bark, herbs and spices. The beverage becomes "local," a global trend that connects food producers and consumers in the same places. "It is this market drive to make the most of local ingredients ... that sets the footprint of the beer characteristic to its place of origin," Jensen said.

While commercial craft beers have influenced home brewers, the reverse is happening, too. Homemade beers often inspire breweries.

"Home brewers in this country have pushed what can be done with beers," Gary Glass, director of the American Homebrewers Association, said by phone Tuesday from Minnesota.

Those innovative amateurs occasionally become professionals. The pioneers behind Boston Brewery (makers of Samuel Adams) and Brooklyn Brewery have such a history. "Most of the people making their living today as brewers started as home brewers," Glass said.

The Evingers are about to enter that category. Adam and his business partner, Chuck Linebaugh, plan to launch Carbon Brewing Co. in rural northern Clay County. "It's funny how it's gone from being just a small hobby thing to what could be my lifelong ambition," said Adam. His dad, Mike, an electronics engineer by trade, will serve as their head brewer.

Adam, 33, studied horticulture for a while at Vincennes University, and works at an ethanol plant in Putnam County. He learned home brewing during his college time. His dad's been at it even longer, after a colleague showed Mike the basics. One Christmas, Mike's wife, Sally, urged him to brew a batch as a special, handmade gift for a friend.

The father-son duo has come a long way, yet still uses a reliable, small set system that features an Igloo cooler for fermenting and propane-fueled kettle for the boiling. After Linebaugh pitched the idea of starting a brewey, and Adam realized he was serious, the Evingers traveled to Oregon for a training session at Portland Kettle Works' Labrewatory.

Last month, the Evingers' Hazy New England IPA won the People's Choice Award at the Wabash Valley Art Spaces Brew-Off in Terre Haute. "It's got a bitterness to it, but it's also got a citrusy, juicy taste," Adam explained. "It turned out really good."

They plan to make larger quantities at the microbrewery, which they've custom-equipped with three 10-barrel fermenters and brite tank that will allow Carbon Brewing to produce 1,300 gallons of beer at a time. They don't plan to open a brew pub, but will focus on crafting beers on a retail and wholesale basis. That might include creating a beer especially for particular restaurants.

Terre Haute a growth area

The Terre Haute region is ripe for craft brewing and home brewing, said Troy Hagan, the Fermenters N Ale Club treasurer and operator of For You Brewing supplies shop on South Seventh Street. Other Hoosier cities with craft breweries had drawn Terre Haute residents, but local outlets are emerging, including Old 41 Brewing Co. at Seventh & Elm restaurant, the Terre Haute Brewing Co. and Big Leaf Brewing at the new Sycamore Winery.

"So it's starting to build quite a bit," Hagan said, calling the local market, pardon the pun, "untapped." The increased availability of unique brews, Hagan added, also sparks interest in home brewing.

The Fermenters N Ale Club exemplifies that interest. It is one of more than 1,000 home brewing clubs around the country. They're in the midst of an annual project. Each year, the club purchases a whiskey barrel and members produce five-gallon beer batches, following the same recipe, and pour their combined brews into that container. The beer ages for three to four months in the barrel, for flavoring.

"And then we divvy it out and go our merry ways," Cadick explained.

Unlike previous years, this season's container will be a wine barrel. That should give the end product a different flavor. "The barrel imparts character from what it was before," Hagan said.

Home brewers enjoy the intrigue, awaiting the outcome. "It's really kind of fun because you don't know what that beer tastes like," said Strole.

And many like to share their findings. Evinger has taught brewing classes at Hagan's shop, for example. As ancient as the practice is, there are opportunities to explore.

"Even though there's only four essential ingredients," Mike Evinger said, "there's an endless amount of ways to put them together."

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Source: (Terre Haute) Tribune-Star, http://bit.ly/2rw9BRS

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Information from: Tribune-Star, http://www.tribstar.com