It’s early on a Wednesday night, and some two dozen people are chatting over drinks in the back of an establishment on Washington Avenue in Brooklyn. A pair of long tables are crowded with glasses and beer bottles — but there’s not a Brooklyn Lager or a Blue Moon among them.
It’s swap night at Bitter & Esters, a homebrew shop in Prospect Heights. Every month, amateur beer makers come to talk shop and taste one another’s output — which this night includes saisons, rye beers, a smoked porter and brews spiked with hot peppers and, in the case of one outlier, peanut butter and chocolate.
Michael LaPlante, 26, uncaps a “super malty” smoked-rye scotch ale he’s made, and is met with a shower of foam: “It’s overcarbonated,” he says. “I bottled it too early.” It’s the third night in a row LaPlante has been out talking shop with fellow homebrewers. Tuesday was a smaller swap at the Bushwick Sampler bar; Monday was a meeting of the Brooklyn Brewsers homebrewers club. At such gatherings, he says, “You get to taste all sorts of stuff. It’s really fun to try other people’s beers.”
As that itinerary suggests, LaPlante isn’t the only one who thinks so. As the number of New Yorkers making beer has boomed in recent years, so has the number of ways beer makers are gathering to trade tips, talk technique, engage in friendly competition and, of course, tip a few cold ones. Such events include club meetings, swaps, classes, competitions, tastings and adventures in group brewing.
“This community of brewers has grown up around town, and it’s pretty exciting,” says Chris Cuzme, president emeritus of the NYC Homebrewers Guild and brewer at 508 in Greenwich Village. “There’s an awesome camaraderie, and it’s one of the things about brewing that’s so fun.”
With all that beer — and camaraderie — you’d think the get-togethers would take on an “Animal House” tone. The suds sampling can certainly create a buzz, but these are not frat boys we’re talking about.
Nobody tracks figures on homebrewers, but ask people like Cuzme — whose guild is the granddaddy of city homebrewers clubs — and they all cite a boom. Cuzme attributes it at least in part to the opening of three shops that have become hubs: Bitter & Esters, Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg and Brooklyn Homebrew in Gowanus. In addition to offering supplies and information, the stores sell starter kits that have been gateways for many a homebrewer; so does the itinerant Brooklyn Brew Shop, which started selling novice-friendly one-gallon kits at Brooklyn Flea in 2009.
Since Bitter & Esters opened two years ago — also offering supplies, plus classes and opportunities to brew onsite, guided by in-house experts — the growth and interest has been “exponential,” says Douglas Amport, co-owner with John La Polla.
“We’re constantly bombarded by new groups that are doing events,” says Amport, who believes “the community aspect is key” when it comes to homebrewing. “You can sit at home and make anything,” he says, “but making beer gives you the opportunity to take something out of the house and share it, and I think that’s why people love it so much.”
You don’t need a permit from the city to make and share your beer, either.
One marker of the homebrew boom is the growth in competitions, which have expanded in both size and number. The biggest, Homebrew Alley, has grown steadily since NYC Homebrewers Guild held the first in 2007: Last year they were swamped with 860 entries. Other large competitions include Homebrewklyn and Brooklyn Wort, which in September brought crowds to the Bell House in Gowanus to taste the beers of 30 finalists.
There’s also been a boom in city homebrew clubs. Once few, they now number at least a dozen, from Homebrewers of Staten Island to Brewstoria in Astoria.
“You find clubs everywhere you look,” says Joshua M. Bernstein, a beer writer who since 2009 has offered sporadic tours of amateur brewers’ homes, where tour goers see their setups and sample their beers. “A lot have sprung up over the last two or three years.”
One of the largest is Brooklyn Brewsers, a three-year-old club with an e-mail list of more than 100, which draws crowds to monthly meet-ups at Brouwerij Lane beer shop in Greenpoint. In addition to kibbitzing about malt extracts and mouthfeel, the members take part in a stream of projects — say, having everyone create a beer using the same yeast strain, or duplicate the same recipe using different hop varietals.
“There’s a lot of experimenting, and a lot of informal tasting and discussion,” says member Ryan McMahon, 28, who lives in Bushwick and does nonprofit finance work.
The conversation can get pretty technical, as demonstrated when McMahon and a few other Brewsers gathered recently in the Greenpoint kitchen of Kyler Serfass, where there are homegrown hops vacuum-sealed in the freezer and four of Serfass’ beers on tap.
“This one stalled out at, like, 10-25,” says Serfass, pouring a recent effort and sounding more like a NASA scientist than a beer guy. “I pitched it with some US-O5; that bumped it down to around 10-19. So it’s a little sweet.”
Experimenting and sharing tips with other Brewsers has been a key learning experience for Serfass, who’s won honors at numerous competitions. “It’s a great way to expedite the learning process,” he says. “It’s inspired me to . . . try styles I never would have tried.”
Having built a rep as a homebrewer, Serfass hopes to take his operation to the next level and go commercial. He’s in good company: Bernstein knows scores of homebrewers who are writing business plans, and says that “people are going to be surprised at the number of breweries coming on line.” Bernstein says homebrewers are turning out some of the city’s best beer — and others agree.
“I’ve encountered some dynamite beers here,” says Heath Sobel, a fire safety director who with his wife, Stacy, is a regular at Bitter & Esters’ swaps. “Some of these people are just off the hook in their creativity and knowledge.”
The swaps offer a place to learn, he says, but also a place to extend the fun he and Stacy have brewing together after their two daughters are in bed. “It’s like when you’re a chef and you want to have people taste what you made and say, ‘Wow, that’s great.’ It’s the same with beer,” he says.
Sometimes it’s the actual beer making that becomes a group affair. On-site brewing is a popular group activity at Bitter & Esters. And there’s the WTF Beer Club, hosted by Asio Highsmith at his WTF Coffee Lab in Fort Greene. Having taken an interest in brewing a year ago, Highsmith opened his shop after hours and invited some friends to come brew up a batch.
“It was just an awesome time, so we did it again, and more people came,” he says, standing in back of the shop as a bubbling kettle fills the air with a malty scent, and a dozen people hang out and sip beers to a hip-hop soundtrack.
Highsmith puts an invite out on Facebook when he gets the itch; as many as 20 people have shown up. “It can really be a party,” he says, checking the kettle with a digital thermometer. And, he notes, “there’s a lot of satisfaction in being able to brew something and drink it.” After a batch ferments, “I like for it to drop on the weekend, so people can come by and hang out,” he says.
Which is the final reward, he says, after funneling the boiled “wort” into a huge jug for fermenting, to emerge as a honey porter in 10 days’ time. “We’re gonna drink that s - - t,” he says.