Home brew to save money and go along with the grain

Tom Fitzpatrick of Batavia said "Home brewers are notoriously cheap," when I asked him about the idea of brewing one's own beer to save money. If you're looking for standard light beers, then commercial fare will do, but if your tastes run toward more interesting craft beers, home brewing can save you significant money.

Tom started brewing in 1992, around the time craft beer was starting to take off with brands like Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada. He got a beer-making kit for Christmas. "My first beer was truly awful," he admitted, but he didn't quit.

"Tom's no quitter," laughed his wife, Luann, remembering those early batches. Tom eventually became quite good at brewing and went from making batches from extracts, to using all grain.

Luann is president of the Urban Knaves of Grain (UKG), a local group of home brewers. (The name is a play on the words "amber waves of grain.") According to Luann, the group has a good mix of experienced brewers and new brewers. Tom noted that many of them were scientists, engineers and others who can appreciate both the art and the science of brewing. Luann became involved in beer judging as a steward (overseeing the event and presenting beers to the judges), then began organizing the stewards and creating a system to help events run more smoothly. She was invited to be the head steward at the National Homebrew Competition in Cincinnati.

"All you need to be able to brew," said Dave Mertz of Aurora, another Urban Knave, "is a kitchen stove, kitchen table and a little storage space. The initial investment to get started will be about $100 in equipment and about $40 in ingredients to brew two cases worth of beer. His batches now, which start from malted barley grain, can cost as little as $20 for a two-case batch. Compared with the $2 per 12-ounce bottle he pays for O'Hara's Stout, that is quite a savings. Dave also noted that "What you can make is limited only by your imagination."

Dave has a healthy imagination. He brews a locally famous strawberry wheat beer, a rye imperial India pale ale that's about 10 percent alcohol and a raspberry chocolate oatmeal stout that took a second place at the "Drunk Monk" annual brewing competition at Walter Payton's Roundhouse, hosted by UKG.

Still, not all ingredients go well with all other ingredients. Luann told me she and Tom didn't pay much attention to style guidelines when they started brewing beer, but learned the guidelines were there for a reason. She now provides education for new brewers through UKG, so they don't make the same mistakes.

If you have been thinking about brewing your own beer, get in touch with the Urban Knaves at www.knaves.org. and check out the Fox Valley Homebrew Shop at 14 West Downer Place in Aurora. They can help you with supplies and equipment. Join the growing number of people who appreciate brewing as an art. Brew your own and support local pubs such as the Two Brothers (Warrenville) and the Roundhouse (Aurora) that brew fresh beer. Life is too short to drink bad beer!