For the love of beer
Published 8:00 pm Saturday, April 3, 2004
Whoever said there’s no such a thing as a free beer must not have tried to make his or her own. While not entirely free of cost, home brewing and vinting is the closest thing to that elusive free beer and as close to perfection many homebrewers and vinters feel beer and wine can get.
In recent decades home brewing and home vinting has seen a resurgence of the over 5,000 year-old practice of fermentation for beverage consumption.
“You can’t buy beer out there like the beers that you can make at home,” said Langley homebrewer Joe Arnold.
Because of the enthusiastic practice of people like Arnold, home beer and winemaking has seen a cultural boom. This year the National Homebrewers Conference will be held June 17-19 in Las Vegas, where the theme will be “Beer and Loafing in Las Vegas.” June, the month of barbecues, hot dogs and beer has also been named American Beer Month.
Last year Penn Cove Mussell Festival even sponsored an amateur winemakers competition where home vinters could flaunt their craft. Winemakers from Oak Harbor, Coupeville, Greenbank and Freeland entered wines varying in types from plum, raspberry, Limburger and pinot gris.
“People don’t do a whole lot for themselves anymore. People used to make their own bread, food, clothes, and wine,” said Freeland home winemaker Virginia Bloom. “This is our way of getting back to that sense of self-sufficiency.”
According to Randy Reynolds of the Washington State Liquor Control Board, state law allows for the making of beer and wine for home use. It’s a law in effect since the repeal of prohibition by president Franklin D. Roosevelt in December 1933, Reynolds said.
The American Association of Brewers notes that home brewing wasn’t made federally legal until 1978, and even then the U.S. Constitution allows states to ignore that statute. Federal guidelines allow up to 200 gallons per family or 100 gallons per individual.
Personal brewing and vinting is not regulated by the liquor control board until the person or household becomes involved in commercial production and then a liquor license is required. It is not to be sold or used in commercial venture. An exception under state law allows for brewers and vinters to remove up to one gallon of home beer or wine for organized beer or wine judging. Following the production guidelines is something the state has allowed home brewers and vinters to do in good faith.
For the last six years, Arnold has been brewing magic in the home base for his “Merlin Brewery” — a small wooden barn on his Langley property. It is there that he finds the delicate balance of grains, hops, water, yeasts and the other ingredients needed for his Wag ‘n’ Tale Ale and Wet Snout Stout.
It’s a two-hour commitment, setup to cleanup, for Arnold to brew beer. After that it’s two weeks of waiting before the first sips can be taken.
He appreciates that homebrew can skip the pasteurization process that is mandated for beers bought in the store.
“If left unpastuerized beer has all these nutrients and vitamins,” he said. “They’re the things that make beer actually good for you.”
The ability to brew beer has no prejudices, said Oak Harbor resident Bill Roth.
“I’ve met hundreds of brewers. Among them were women, young and old men who came from all walks of life,” he said. “Not all of them make good beer.”
Roth, who has had a successful fledgling career as a brewer. In college he tried making beer like many other people who received a homebrewing kit for Christmas. His experiments with making beer were fueled by hanging out with a bunch of chemistry majors. After college his hobby laid dormant.
But, three years ago he began brewing for the now defunct Whidbey Island Brewery in Langley and the Brew Pub in Oak Harbor, both now defunct.
“It must be in my blood or something,” Roth said.
It’s so much in his blood that he is still brewing 15 gallon batches at home while he waits for people to call looking for a few good brewers. Roth insists on downplaying a homebrewer myth.
“People immediately assume that you are a lush, but that’s not the case at all,” he said. “It’s just that we like good beer.”
A FINE WINE
Two weeks for beer is a short wait compared the wait for Joe Arnold’s wife, Kathleen, who just this week will bottle wines she began a year ago.
Talk beer and you hear “man this hits the spot” — beer guys and gals are simple. Talk wine and you start tossing out talk of bouquets and how a wine is “round and ripe,” light and lovely” or that it has “nice tannins.” If not used to the terminology wine making can be intimidating but Ken and Virginia Bloom of Freeland have found it to be a breeze.
The Blooms, owners of Puget Sound Business Systems, began making wine on the consuming end. For the last 30 years, Ken’s brother had been involved with wine on the growing end as a grape grower in California. In 1998 the Blooms began experimenting with some of those grapes.
Fall has been a busy time since with the Blooms traveling down to California to oversee the harvest of grapes for their wine. Within two days the fruit is picked from the vine it must be crushed, processed and stored where it will remain for 18 months to two years depending on aimed final product.
Since beginning their winemaking venture, the Blooms have won awards at the Island County Fair and the Western Washington Fair in Puyallup and this is the first year they have a commercial license.
But even in taking the step to the commercial license the Blooms want to keep their operation small.
‘It’s a nice, manageable size right now. We don’t want it to start being work and stop being fun,” he said.
On a small scale, Greenbank Cellars owner Frank Rayle said home winemaking can be done at a minimal cost of around $50.
“You’re not going to end up making much but it’s a start,” he said.
Fifteen years ago Frank Rayle, 65, made his first five-gallon batch of wild blackberry wine. He is now the owner and chief wine crafter for Greenbank Cellars and 15 to 16 tons of grapes each year to produce 800 cases of wine for the cellars.
Going pro with wine
Greg Osenbach has yet to thank his wife, Elizabeth, for a certain Christmas present he received in the mid 1970s. The couple was living in Monroe and Osenbach was busy with a steel engineering business when one year Elizabeth gave him a winemaking book as a yuletide present.
“I started out with that book, a few 10-gallon car boys some rhubarb and blackberries,” he said.
Greg continued to create wines at home with great experimentation. He tried making wine with everything he could get his hands on.
“I used all kinds of grapes, blackberries, rhubarb and I even have notes from a cherry wine,” he said.
As he grew, Osenbach utilized a few grape connections lying around from a side project of making Concord jam to land some prime grapes from Eastern Washington.
A decade later the Osenbachs took the leap to the commercial production side. They haven’t looked back since. The Osenbachs moved to Whidbey in 1986 and soon after opened Whidbey Island Winery just outside of Langley. They are now producing around 8,000 gallons of wine per year.
Does he regret leaving his hobby days?
“Ask me that half way through the harvest and I’ll probably say yes,” he said.
INFO BOX
Brew your own, vint on
Before you make your own wine and beer, you must first get the supplies needed. Here are a few places to stop.
Northwest Brewers Supply
316 Commercial Ave., Anacortes
360-293-0424 or 800-460-7095
Homebrew Heaven
9109 Evergreen Way, Everett
425-290-8011
The Cellar
14411 Greenwood Avenue North
206-365-7660
