I’ve been drinking a lot of beer lately.

Before I have to go all Amy Winehouse and say, “No, No, No” to rehab, let me explain. As I’ve previously mentioned, a year ago, I didn’t know beer besides Bud Light even existed. Now that I’ve had a taste of what I’ve been missing all my life, I can’t get enough. I’m intrigued by all these concepts: winter beers, lagers, stouts, ales… I could go on and on. There is so much to learn and yet I’m just one person so I enlisted some people to help educate me. I first asked the biggest beer dude I know, my friend Matt Dalton, how beer gets made. His response; “The easiest way I’ve heard it explained by the head brewer at Avery is that yeast eats sugar, pisses alcohol and farts C02.” Excuse me, but that’s just gross. Look, I may be a beer drinker these days, but I’m still a lady. I knew it was time to branch out and talk to others.

I talked with Jacob Voegeli who brews his own beer about what that process is like for him. Jacob got started making his own beer when he was in college. His girlfriend (now wife) bought him a Mr. Beer kit to get him going. He used the kit (which comes with a 2.5 gallon bucket and ingredients), read “The Joy of Homebrewing” by Charlie Papazian and as he puts it, “discovered a world of possibilities”. The process for brewing beer is fairly simple from a high level view according to Jacob. He told me, “you need hops, grains, yeast, water and time”. Well, I got time… the rest can be found at What’s Brewin’. It’s when he explained more in depth about the process that he kind of lost me. Here is the process according to Jacob:

“What you get out of the grains is called wort, this can either be obtained my steeping grains in 150 degree water for about 90 minutes or it can be purchased at a homebrew store or the internet. There is Liquid Malt Extract, LME, and there is Dry Malt Extract, DME. Both of these make the brewing process go quicker, but limit the amount of grain control that you have over your beer. That is why there is usually a shift towards brewing all grain the more you get into brewing and the more control you want over your beer. I personally have not made that leap, but am definetly ready switch. The next step is boiling the wort, this is where the hops and most everything else is added into the pot. After the wort cools down to about room temperature, you will put it in a fermenter, usually a five gallon bucket, and add the yeast. The yeast is where the alcohol in the beer will come from. Later, the yeast will give the beer carbonation. After the beer has been in the fermenter for at least 2-3 weeks, that is when it is time to bottle the beer and carbonate it. To carbonate a beer, add corn sugar to the wort in the fermentor and bottle the beers, usually with a bottle capper or a growler. I have even seen people using two liter bottles,and that seems to work just fine. After a week or two, you will have a fully carbonated beer ready to enjoy. Overall, I would say the process takes at least 4 weeks, probably more like 6-9 weeks, depending on what kind of beer you brew. Most of that time is spent waiting, in fact the actual brewing usually takes me about 3-4 hours, including sanitizing.”

See what I mean? A little on the complicated side. That left me with more questions. “Why brew you own if it’s so complicated?” for example. I asked another brewer, Bryant Hummer, who explained that brewing his own has taught him a lot about beer in general and allows him the freedom to brew exactly what he likes to drink at a fraction of the price. He can brew a 5 gallon batch for the same price as 2 or 3 six packs at the liquor store. Hello, bargain!

For Jacob, along with the cost benefits of brewing his own also comes ownership. “There is nothing better than hearing one of your friends ask where you got the beer, and you tell them that you made it.”

It’s not all fun and games when brewing your own beer. When making one of his first batches, Jacob decided to cut corners and use regular sugar instead of corn sugar. This lead to bad carbonation. Some bottles had too much and exploded once they were opened. Some had no carbonation at all. There’s a tear in his beer when he thinks about that lost batch.

And at times homebrewers have dry spells. These times are when you can find Jacob throwing back a Tallgrass Ale made in Manhattan, Kansas. He’s toured the brewery and says it is his favorite… and not just because he went to school there. Whether you believe he is biased or not, there is no denying that Tallgrass Ale is pretty delicious.

Bryant, on the other hand, prefers to sip on Duvel or beers from New Belgium, Great Divide or Schlafly.

In my quest to find out more about beer, I also met with Rob Miller of Goebel Liquor. His store has 1000+ beers and the largest selection in Wichita. My takeaway from our talk? His enthusiam was infectious. Whether it was talking about traveling the world to try different beers from breweries all over (he has celebrated Oktoberfest in Germany, sampled hand crafted Belgium ales in Brussels and tasted Left Hand’s Smokejumper Smoked Imperial Porter out of tanks months before its release in Kansas), or discussing his collaboration with Jeff Gill at Tallgrass to develop a beer specifically for Wichita (the name has not yet been trademarked so keeping it a secret is hard for me but I trust in the fact that when Wichita gets its own beer I will be one of the first in line to purchase it) or his plans to expand Goebel Liquor and continue his beer bottle, cycling jerseys and poster collection (you’ve got to see it to fully experience it), I could see it.

Rob has trained staff who are just as enthusiastic as he is and they can make suggestions and offer different options. Hello, they introduced me to the awesomeness that is Nutcracker Ale. They deserve a million points just for that. He has a store that is wall-to-wall beer and has tried over 10,000 beers. This guy gets it. He knows how to work hard and play harder. He is my new hero.

There seems to be a camaraderie among beer drinkers. So while I may never brew my own beer like Jacob and Bryant, I would like to taste test their beer sometime. And while I may never own a store full of 1,000 beers like Rob, I will make it my mission to try as many as I can. And finally, while I may have not always been a beer drinker I am now and there is no looking back. Beer people are good people, that’s the biggest message I’ve gotten so far and I’m happy to count myself among them.

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4. [drink] Boozing It Up On The Cheap
5. [drink] Now Where Do I Go? Alternatives to Victory Sports Bar & Grill