Eastman Living Online Magazine

By Richard Sachs

Food is trendy these days. Cooking groups and gourmet clubs are popping up everywhere, and TV shows and social media are keeping up with ever more robust content. In fact, there are so many food and cooking programs that many new networks have been created, although it has been argued that the fans of these shows spend much more time in front of the TV than in the kitchen.

What about an interest in beverages? We all know people who are passionate and knowledgeable about wines. We may even know people who try to create their own. But, how about beer? There are folks who believe that your average six-pack on store shelves is to beer what Folgers and Lipton are to coffee and tea, and want something better and more interesting. Enter the popularity of craft breweries. There are smaller ones like Harpoon Brewery across the Connecticut River in Windsor, VT (as well as in Boston, MA) that markets itself as a locally owned and managed business with regional appeal, but produces nearly 200,000 barrels each year with a sales distribution that includes 28 states and a few foreign countries. Then there are microbreweries like Flying Goose Brew Pub in nearby New London that brews only about 1,500 barrels each year (over 23,000 gallons or 185,000 pint servings) and serves nearly all of it in its own restaurant and bar.

But for a growing cadre of beer lovers, there is handcrafted beer, frequently brewed in basements or garages, and not for commercial distribution. These brewers produce beers and ales in small batches to create a product that satisfies a personally chosen style, flavor, and quality. Using distilled water, mineral mixes, select hop flowers, malted barley, and other grains that can be heated to various degrees of darkness for bolder flavors, beer making requires time and special equipment, and is a complicated process.

Bob Phelps loves to talk about making beer…Since retiring, he has the time and energy to brew more often and with greater intensity.

The Eastman Craft Beer Club, with Bob Phelps at its helm, is a group of beer aficionados who met regularly to taste, judge, and talk about craft beers and ales from June through October 2017. Some members made their own beer in the past; some were currently brewing small batches. All have a passion for the homebrewed product and an appreciation of the qualities that can be achieved with care and skill. Necessarily excluding members younger than 21, the group includes folks from their 30s to 70s.

Bob loves to talk about making beer. He did a little brewing in college and picked it up again with greater ambition and better equipment about 10 years ago. Since retiring, he has the time and energy to brew more often and with greater intensity. Over the years he has been upgrading his equipment to improve the quality of his product, to add variety to it, and to be able to brew in larger quantities with less work. Bob brews about four to eight times a year, with each batch of three to 10 gallons taking two to four weeks to complete. With assistance from Rob Stebbins, Bob manages his advanced equipment, including boilers, pumps, and fermenters, and is equipped to ferment in kegs, thus able to bypass the labor-intensive process of bottle capping since there are nearly 13 bottles per gallon of brew. And he has a growing collection of floats, meters, and other gizmos that allow him to monitor clarity, viscosity, and alcohol and sugar content.

Beer making is a complicated process. One can get started for under $100 using commercial extracts and prepared hops and yeast to produce a gallon or so of basic yield. Enthusiasts generally upgrade to equipment able to handle grains directly and to give them the capability of crafting individually designed and flavored ale. Most home brewers make ales that ferment at the top of the liquid rather than fussier lagers that ferment in the bottom of the vessel. Bob explains that lagers require a lower and more controlled fermenting temperature that is difficult to achieve in the home. Adequate ventilation is a must, as the fermenting process yields a strong and rather unpleasant aroma. He often refers to robust print and Web-based literature on beer and ale creation, and uses software applications for recipes, flavors, and detailed discussions of the color, turbidity and texture of various brews.

Craft brewers regularly exchange bottles all around the country so folks can compare their quaffs with many others. While the Eastman Craft Beer Club met monthly with structured gatherings at which they sometimes conducted blind tastings and numerical judging as well as discussed brewing techniques and flavor preferences, the club capped off its recent season with a more social gathering. Thanks to Bob’s trades with other brewers, fortunate attendees of this year-ending party were able to sample the products of over a half-dozen craft brewers, including a pilsner from Grand Rapids, MI, a lager from Burlington, VT, and ales from Freeport, ME, Stowe, VT, and Hamilton, ON.

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Richard Sachs is a retired physician who is a regular contributor to Eastman Living. He was privileged to have researched this article with samples provided by the club.

Filed under: Short Takes.