For LA Homebrew Manager Donovan McClelland, the brewing process begins in your head. After the brewer has an idea of taste and color in mind, the preparations work backward from there. The person brewing the beer breaks down the flavors based off of ingredients that will produce the desired characteristics and gathers them.
“The best beer you can make is the one you think of,” McClelland said.
Now, anyone can learn how to make beer from their homes with a class taught by LA Homebrew.
McClelland will be leading the class this Saturday, which will teach attendees how to brew an American Pale Ale style beer by using a method of brewing that involves getting sugars from an extract.
“It’s something that will be pleasing to just about everybody,” McClelland said. “The method we are using is ideal for students or people that simply do not have a crawfish burner to brew in outside.”
The kits that will be used in the class will be the same kits LA Homebrew sells to beginners in order to make the brewing process as simple as possible for amateurs.
“The purpose of the class and using the kits is to make the process as easy as possible but also to teach people about beer itself,” McClelland said. “Beer brewing is an 8,000-year-old tradition, and brewing beer yourself can give you a connection to the people who were doing it all those years ago. The process has not changed so much, and even back then they were making pretty good beer so it is an easy process.”
McClelland said the main reason people are deterred from trying to brew beer is the misconception that brewing at home is too expensive or too complex. He said the kit needed to start homebrewing is $60, and it will give you five gallons of beer. The actual ingredients vary in price depending on how much flavor or body wanted in the beer, but usually the entire process costs around $90 to $100. Five gallons of beer yields around 50 bottles of beer, so the process is more affordable than people think it is, McClelland said.
Because the yeast added to the brew takes time to convert the sugars into alcohol, the brew that takes place in the class will not be alcoholic until days after the brewing process, which means that those making beer in the class will be able to taste it as they make it.
“There is an old saying, ‘Brewers make wort, yeast makes beer,’” McClelland said. “What we are doing in the class is getting all of the sugar from the grains into the water so we get this sweet and sugary liquid. Then we add the yeast to the mix to convert those sugars into alcohol. The process creates carbon dioxide which is why beer is carbonated.”
Outside of the class, brewing beer comes down to four different ingredients that define the characteristics: barley or grains, hops, yeast and water.
“The barley is usually what determines the color of the beer, as well as the sweetness and the roastiness of the flavor,” McClelland said. “The hops are added to the mixture to cut back on the sweetness of the beer. The hops are in charge of how bitter the mix is. Yeast is an overlooked part of the beer. Yeast gives the bulk of the flavor of the beer.”
Brewing is a hands-off process where the ingredients are going to be sitting for a certain amount of time with the brewer only needing to add or remove ingredients to progress the brew.
“We say that brewing is half an hour of work in three hours, so there is plenty of downtime between the steps. Since there are gaps in the brew process, we wanted to teach people about the beer and the history of brewing at the class in the downtime between steps,” McClelland said. “We will also be talking about how the different ingredients affect the beer that people will brew after the class. There will also be open discussion at the end of the class for people with questions.”
The class will be held at the Main Library, part of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library System, located on 7711 Goodwood Blvd., on Saturday. After the class there also will be a short look at wine, mead and cider making.