In my opinion, there is something magical about the beer brewing process. You take your grains, your yeast, your hops and mix it all together with water the right way. You let it ferment and, if you do it right, you get a tasty and bubbly alcoholic beverage that is best enjoyed with friends. Some will call it science, some will call it art, but to a more fanciful mind like mine, it is magic.
Whatever you want to call it, it is an interesting process, and many people like me—who enjoy a frosty beverage from time to time—sometimes get the urge to discover how that magic works and brew their very own beer, known as homebrew.
It is hard to believe, but not that long ago, homebrewing was an illegal activity in the United States, as a federal law that was a remnant of the Prohibition era forbid brewing anything greater than 0.5 percent alcohol at home. That changed in 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed H.R. 1337, a bill that “allows any adult to produce wine and beer for personal and family use.”
After that, homebrewing exploded in popularity across the country, and, not surprisingly, the micro and craft beer industry boomed right along with it as many people who began their brewing at home eventually worked their way to becoming commercial brewers.
Getting into homebrewing can be a little intimidating, with strange words like “wort” and “mash” confounding some new to the game. Brew kits that provide all the necessary ingredients help newcomers make the leap to getting started. Oftentimes, that first brewing experience is a gateway into a whole new world of beer flavors, and a new hobby is born.
After all, as many bakers and at-home chefs know, there is nothing better that enjoying the fruits of your labor by taking a big taste of your creation and saying, “This is pretty darn tasty, and I made it.”
Maybe the only thing better than that first taste of home brew is sharing your beer with like-minded people and learning to make it even better. As with any hobby, the deeper you get into beer brewing, the more complicated it gets.
This is where the State College Homebrew Club comes in. The club is a resource for community members who are looking to get into homebrewing and for seasoned homebrewers looking to share secrets.
After brewing a few batches of beer here and there when he was living in the United Kingdom, current club president Phil Gowling started brewing in earnest when he moved to the United States in 2009.
“We had lived in Holland before, so I was used to drinking Belgian beer. Back then, when you came over here it was just IPAs or Budweiser or what have you, and I wanted to drink Belgian beer,” says Gowling. While he says he could find some Belgians here, “They were really, really expensive. So, I thought, I’ll try homebrewing again.”
He started brewing those Belgian ales he craved, and soon he got the itch to venture out to other styles. Setting up his operation on the kitchen stove at first, Gowling half-jokingly says that he eventually got “booted out into the garage like most homebrewers” after he had a few messy boil-overs.
His garage setup included some old kegs that he modified into a three-tier gravity-fed system that was heated by propane. It was a good system, but as he grew more advanced in his brewing, the propane system made it difficult to maintain a certain temperature. Being in the garage was also less than ideal for long brewing days in the cold central Pennsylvania winters, so eventually he constructed a new setup in the basement.
“It is a bit like golf—you can spend as much as you want on a brewing system,” Gowling says with a chuckle, showing off the wi-fi connected setup he can run from a tablet. The system helps him keep the temperature controlled and tidy, and it has helped Gowling produce some national-award-winning homebrews.
The process of homebrewing takes a significant chunk of time—up to 15 hours—and Gowling says, “A lot of people ask, ‘How much money do you save?’ but you don’t save anything.”
Time-consuming but well worth the effort, the whole process is “fascinating,” Gowling says. “You are creating something yourself that is sometimes better than what you get from commercial breweries.”
It was back in 2014 when he started looking for a local homebrew club to share his new pastime with, so he could learn new recipes and techniques while meeting some likeminded people. He found an online forum dedicated to homebrewing in State College and he joined together with some of the people involved, with the goal of turning the group into a legit club. They set up a Facebook group and eventually started monthly meetings.
What began as a group of nine quickly grew to more than 20 to 30 members who meet regularly and well over 400 members on the Facebook group. Online, the group is a great resource for brewing questions that come about along the way. Monthly meetings allow club members to come together and talk—and taste—all things brewing.
“The key thing that people get out of the club is sharing their beer; that is probably the key reason you brew. When we have monthly meetings, people bring their beer to get feedback and people will give honest feedback, you know, constructive criticism,” says Gowling. “We have people who have brewed for over 20 years and people who have just started brewing. If you have just started brewing, it is a good way to start learning from people who know what they are doing, getting pointers and such. If you have been brewing a while, it is a way to master more advanced techniques.”
The group paused meeting in person during part of the pandemic, but they are getting back in the full swing of things, keeping meetings as safe as possible. In February the club held its sixth annual Pennsylvania Homebrew Open Competition at Big Spring Spirits in Bellefonte, where homebrewers put their homemade creations to the test against those of other brewers from around the state and country. During the event, official beer judges awarded prizes in multiple categories. A few times a year, club members roll up their sleeves to brew beer and serve at charitable beer events around the area, such as Brews in The Barn at the Millbrook Playhouse in Mill Hall, Selinsgrove Brewfest, and PA Flavor in Harrisburg. Gowling says it is a fun way for the club to give back and meet more people who like good beer. If you are one of those people, you can find more information about the club at statecollegehomebrewclub.com.
Staff writer Vincent Corso enjoys drinking local and meeting new people at central Pennsylvania’s many interesting establishments.
