Beer Witch

Anyone wanting to get started brewing can buy the equipment and ingredients from several companies catering especially to home brewers. Kramer recommends MidWest Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies, a company in Minnesota with a Web site where customers’ brewing needs can all be met online. Once you have the supplies in hand, “the process is pretty simple,” Kramer explains. “Basically, brewing can be broken down into three steps: the boil, which is the most fun and includes transferring the beer to the primary fermenter where, for roughly a week, most of the fermentation takes place. The second step is transferring the beer to the secondary fermenter, where it sits for roughly two weeks, and clarifies. The third step is bottling, and includes the addition of priming sugar, which is what causes the beer to carbonate.” The beer will not be ready to drink for several weeks once bottled, the exact amount of time depending on the style of beer. On average, the whole process takes around seven weeks—three weeks before bottling and four after bottling. “The waiting is definitely the hardest part,” says Kramer.

If you’ve never brewed before, there is plenty of help to be had. Numerous home brewing guides are printed each year, and Web sites, including MidWest Supplies, offer advice and recipes from other brewers. “There’s a huge community online,” says Kramer, who has even called the owner of MidWest for help. For the most part, other brewers are more than willing to share their own brewing tips and stories.

Once you get the basics down, you can begin to experiment. Kramer, for instance, said her best batch of beer to date came when she added hazelnut extract to a batch of Nut Brown Ale. She named this batch “Hazel’s in the Nut House.” And you don’t have to let brewing dictate your schedule. You can brew at your own pace, making as many or as few batches as you want. “Some people always have to have something going,” says Kramer, “but I only do maybe four batches a year.”