![]() ![]() Over the next two hours from the start of the hopping process through the end of the cooling process, Arnold and I will have lifted a large, coiled contraption through which cold water is sent to drop the temperature of my Nutcastle wort and sanitized a half-dozen different instruments, including a sizable strainer to collect the trub, a protein precipitate formed after the extract and the grains are mixed and boiled, from my wort that's collected into a white bucket where it'll sit for two weeks as it ferments. "People have asked me all the time: What is the essence of brewing? It's cleaning things and moving heavy stuff," Boddy says. This is homebrewing-giving your wort the proper time to undergo a series of chemical reactions so that, once you've cooled it, added it to a bucket, poured in your yeast, and sealed that bucket, you'll have beer after two weeks. After churning it around in the vat with a long-handled stainless steel spoon, we boil the grains and the extract (what we're now calling "wort"), and then transition into the hour-long hopping process.Īnd then we wait. Whereas Boddy mashed his grains, triggering an enzymatic process that converts starch into sugar-and it's the sugar that yeast consumes during the fermentation process-I'm using liquid extract, a golden, syrupy goop that's already been mashed, and is therefore full of the sugar my beer needs. When the half hour is done, we boil the water, then cut the heat and add malt extract. After inserting milled grains into a mesh bag, we begin by steeping them for 30 minutes inside slightly more than 5 gallons of 150-degree water, which serves to leech out a brownish color from the grains. My homebrew takes up the better part of three and a half hours, and before we begin, Arnold walks me around the store, helping me pick the grains, hops, and yeast I need. Boddy's Hail Vespers is 13 percent alcohol by volume at 5.1 percent, my finished brew will be fit for a Keystone Light-swilling college freshman. The other part? A nagging sense of masculine inadequacy, because for my first homebrew I've impetuously chosen from a book of recipes to concoct a "Nutcastle" brown ale, a clear knockoff of the Newcastle variety. Partly, I'm worried I might knock something over. I occupy space at the far left of Nepenthe's homebrewing setup, choosing to stay well clear of Boddy, who's taken up two of the four available gas burners and vats. Beginners, like me, pay $160 to be guided by Arnold through a 5-gallon homebrew, which nets about 48 bottles of beer. From Friday through Sunday, and for a price, homebrewers can use the space on the far left side of Nepenthe for brewing, fermenting, bottling, and kegging their own beers. 6 after prolonged wrangling for the necessary permits. I go for the canned Natty Boh when I sidle up to Mount Royal Tavern's bar.īut I'm at Nepenthe to try out its brew-on-premises offering, which commenced Sept. My beer knowledge is limited, and my palate is puny. Buy a box, pop it open, and follow the instructions.Īn utter novice, in this case, is me, as I'm not the usual Nepenthe customer. Many kinds of liquid and dry yeasts, necessary for fermentation, are available.įor utter novices, supplies and pre-assembled homebrew kits sit waiting on shelves. ![]() The selection of hops, the stuff that gives beer its bitterness, flavor and aroma, is ample and varied: piney hops, citrusy hops, floral hops hops from England the quintessential American hops, Cascade and Centennial hops from New Zealand with a bit of lime and vanilla. Nearly 50 different malted grains - used to give a beer its color - occupy a long shelf in the back of the store. It's for those people that the pair created Nepenthe, 2,300 square feet of homebrewing heaven. Nepenthe is defined as something that eases pain or sorrow (it was a drug mentioned in "The Odyssey" and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"). Located within the Meadow Mill complex adjacent to the Woodberry Light Rail line, it opened in February, and it's the brainchild of homebrewing couple Jill Antos and Brian Arnold, each of whom started homebrewing on their own several years ago. He's rushing to complete the second half of six homebrews, beers he requires for different events during the fifth Baltimore Beer Week, the annual Elysium for Charm City's beer lovers that kicks off Friday and features more than 350 events, including beer tastings at area breweries and bars around town a cornhole tournament Chilibrew, a chili cook off-cum-homebrew competition presented by Baltibrew and a homebrew gruit ale contest at Liam Flynn's in Station North, for which Boddy is making his Hail Vespers.įor his laboratory Boddy picks the same place Baltibrew holds its monthly meetings: Nepenthe Homebrew, the only beer-making and brew-on-premises shop in Baltimore. While Boddy usually produces his beers from home, he needs a slightly larger workspace this first Friday of October. ![]()
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