Brewmeisters quench thirst

By Molly McGonigle

Beneath the Santa Clara social norm of countless red cups of Keystone Light, an underground movement of homemade beer is brewing.

Brewing beer is a favorite hobby of students like senior Tim Sennott and juniors Colleen Sinsky and Matt Pavlik.

"It's really fun to be able to brew whatever you want and pick whatever kind of ingredients you want to work with," said Pavlik, who described the brew-making process as relaxing.

Pavlik is very excited by the possibilities of his first brew and already knows he wants to continue brewing in the future.

Equipped with a brewing kit and his knowledge as an employee at Beer and WineMakers of America, Pavlik was well-prepared before he dove into the actual brewing process.

"There's a lot of disagreement between all of the information and instruction about the process," said Pavlik. "So you can just pick and choose and basically just learn along the way."

The first part of the process is getting together all of the ingredients necessary for the brew. Four-year brewing veteran Sennott said that lots of recipes are available. "You can look them up online and play with them if you have a particular style you like, and you can deal with ingredients that are available locally." Sennott, who is a photographer for The Santa Clara, recommends discussing the process with employees at a local brewshop, such as MoreFlavor! in Los Altos, Calif.

For the extract brewing method, the most common brewing method among home brewers, the brewmeister must heat up a 15-quart kettle of water and steep grains and hops -- which add flavor -- in the hot water to make what looks like a tea-beer.

Priming sugar, called malt, is then added to the boiling brew.

Usually, home brewers make five-gallon batches at a time, said Sennott, so a 15-quart kettle holds about two-thirds of the total quantity.

After developing the water-grains-hops-malt mixture, known as wort or "proto-beer," as Sennott calls it, the brewer adds water to get the correct volume and "pitches," or adds yeast.

All of this takes place on brew day, the first day of the process.

Then, the brew must sit to ferment for about a week, during which carbon dioxide is released through a valve on the container.

Some brewers choose to do a second fermentation to age and condition the beer for the desired flavor and quality.

This is done by switching the brew to a different container and letting it sit for anywhere from two weeks to several months.

Unlike wine, the taste and quality of beer is not directly related to the age of the alcohol. "A very good beer can be made in three weeks, or a very poor beer can be made in six months," said Sennott.

After either the primary or secondary fermentation, the beer can either be put into a keg or bottled, which is more labor-intensive.

"It's a lot of time," Sennott said. "Most of the work is cleaning, so it's not very scientific."

Pavlik decided to use the bottling process for his brew instead of the more widely-used kegging option. "Bottling is extensive because you have to wait a week and a half after bottling to carbonate the beer before you can drink it," he explained.

Sinsky, who has always been interested in breweries, is from San Diego, where beer brewing is extremely popular. Even though Sinsky's first brew is still in the fermenting stage, she is excited about the possibilities of creating and trying different types of beers. "My friends have an orange tree in their backyard, so we are thinking of trying a zest of orange beer."

While these three students have their own ideas about brewing, they all agree that the entire process is really fun.

Sennott encourages anyone with an interest in quality beer to explore the process of beer brewing. "Even a batch that's even mediocrely executed just tastes better," Sennott said. "It's fresher and, in general, I would always prefer beer I made. And it usually has a higher alcohol content than store-bought beer, but you have control over that."

There seem to be some discrepancies among the brewers about the value of the investment of brewing your own beer over the price of a store-bought keg.

"It's a little expensive," Sennott said of home brewing. "It's probably between 60 and 65 cents a pint, and the kits create five gallons of beer. So it definitely costs more than a keg of Keystone Light."

Sennott insisted, however, that the overall result of the brew ? forty or fifty self-made tasty pints ? was much more rewarding than just picking up a 30-rack at the local liquor store.

As a rookie brewer, Sinsky is still coming to terms with both the time commitment and price of brewing her own beer. "It is labor intensive and sort of expensive, so I wouldn't recommend it if you are trying to save money."

But the fact that Sinsky is already excited about creating her own brews promises her a future of creativity rather than the typical trip to the liquor store.

Contact Molly McGonigle at (408) 551-1918 or mmcgonigle@scu.edu.