Drinking Larry's Beer (Mini-Podcast)

This is a selection from my interview with Larry Coble, house brewer for the Brew and Grow store. We share a beer, critique it and get the recipe.





If you want to here the rest of Larry's interview or read more about homebrewing check out this and this

Beer Man, House Brewer, and Homebrewer: Larry Coble

Long time house brewer for Brew and Grow, Larry Coble talks homebrew, history and hops from a seat next to four five-gallon carboys of brewing beer.

India Pale, Belgian and Scotch Ale Right Here in Lincoln Park

Today, as promised, the recipes for the three beers that I am making or drinking right now.

First, a brief disclaimer: I didn't come up with any of these recipes on my own everything I brewed was either suggested to me or at least tweeked by the good people at Brew and Grow (Lincoln Park's friendly neighborhood brew place).

The beers are Walter's Pale Ale (after the dog), Avers Avenue (after the street), and Toad Spit Stout (after what the guy who wrote that recipe named it). As I described yesterday beer has five primary ingrediants: water, malt, grain, yeast and hops. To give you a sense of some of the different ingredients we used here is a chart.



These three beers represent a diversity of taste, body and style. So far, each of these beers has been delicious. I am not going to walk you through the steps of brewing because we got into that yesterday, but I will leave you with this picture of our first brew's namesake.


Photo Credits:Marie Pavlich and Steve Graue

Homemade Beer

If you can make tea, read a thermometer, or a book you can brew beer.

When I first heard of homebrewing it was from a bio-chemist and I mistakenly assumed that it was some complex and technical undertaking that only the truely dedicated could bring off. Not so. Beer is almost as fun and easy to make as it is to drink.

Beer is made out of:
-Water
-Malt (a kind of sugar)
-Hops (a bitter plant)
-Yeast (the fungus that makes bread rise)
-Grain (barley, wheat, or something else)

Besides being easy its also rewarding.

You get a lot more than a buzz out of making your own beer:
-Its cheaper than buying the fine, exotic beers
-After a couple batches you'll be making beer on par with or better than anything you can buy
-Homebrewing teaches you a lot about beer
-It makes a personal gift
-It's a hobby you can have for life

My beers usually take a month or two to completely ferment and finish the brewing process. It's explained in depth here.

My home brews take about 10 steps:
1. Heat a couple gallons of water
2. Add the grains, malt and hops (these ingredients will go in at different tempatures depending on the recipe and your preference)
3. Boil
4. Cool the mixture (this liquid is often called the tea or the wort)
5. Add to three gallons of room temperature water
6. Wait a couple weeks
7. Add some finishing sugar
8. Bottle
9. Wait another week
10. Drink up!

Check this blog tomorrow for recipes I have used in batches I am brewing/drinking right now.

Photo Credit: Marie Pavlich (my cousin!)