When Frank Frigo began brewing his own beer two years ago, it wasn’t an instant success. In fact, one of his first concoctions almost convinced Frigo to get out of the beer-making business.
“During the fermentation of the beer, the mix of the sugar in the malt and the yeast caused a major explosion in my basement. It was a mess,” recalled Frigo, a 38-year-old Joliet resident.
Since that inauspicious beginning, however, Frigo has become quite the home-brewer. “I’m making my own beer as often as possible instead of buying it from a liquor store,” Frigo said. “I’d say I’m close to some of the better beers on the market.”
Frigo is not the only amateur brewer to harbor this opinion of his stock. If you bring together a group of home-brewers, each one probably will say the same thing.
Indeed, once a month at a designated watering hole, Frigo and fellow home-brewers from the south suburbs gather for just this purpose. This group, known as Brewers United for Making Suds (BUMS), was organized so south suburban home-brewers could swap beers and brag about their new, improved recipes.
“We’re just here to compare brews, have snacks and b.s.,” Frigo said during a recent Friday night BUMS meeting at the Chicago Street Bar and Grill in Joliet. “It’s a night out for us.”
The organizer and patron saint of BUMS is Dean Leto of Frankfort, who is also the co-owner of the Country Food and Liquor store in southwest suburban Mokena.
Leto organized the brew club shortly after he first began selling home-brewing supplies to his customers in November 1990. Before then, Country Food and Liquor-which Leto has operated with three other family members since 1978-primarily was known for stocking some of the better-known imported beers. But some customers who were familiar with making their own beer suggested that Leto start selling home-brewing supplies.
“A customer of ours moved out this way from Oak Lawn,” Leto recalled. “He was already a home-brewer, and he suggested that we get in on the business. We also had some other customers who were home-brewers, and they started asking about us getting into the business, so we did.”
Now, a scant 2 1/2 years later, Leto has sold supplies to more than 1,500 brewers. His store had to be expanded last year to meet the demand from home-brew meisters.
Why has home-brewing become so popular with Leto’s customers? Leto believes that people who make their own beer like doing so because it saves them money.
“You can make great beer that’s very cost-effective,” Leto said. “Great imported beer costs $7 to $8 a six-pack, but you can make your own six-pack for $2 or $3.
“Plus, it’s easy to do,” Leto added. “It only takes two hours, and you can make it to your liking. You can make it light enough or strong enough. There’s a million different combinations.”
There also seem to be a million different types of people who become home-brewers. “It’s a fun hobby, so even guys who aren’t big beer drinkers do it just to pass the time,” Leto said. “We get a lot of cooks, doctors and chemists. And even some women like it, because it’s a cooking atmosphere, and a lot of women are gravitating toward a more refined taste in beer.”
Together, this varied group has been responsible for making home-brewing one of the trendier hobbies since the federal law regulating it in the United States was changed in 1979. There are now more than one million home-brewers and more than 1,000 stores selling home-brewing supplies in this country, according to the American Home Brewing Association, a Boulder, Colo.-based group.
“There were originally only a handful of home-brewers and stores that sold home-brewing supplies in this country,” said Lori Tullberg, the marketing director for the American Home Brewing Association. “But the number of people buying home-brewing supplies has been growing 25 to 30 percent each year since it was legalized.”
During the late ’70’s and early ’80s, home-brewing was popular primarily in West Coast states like California, Washington and Oregon. As of Jan. 1, 1993, it is illegal only in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah, Alabama, Missouri and Pennsylvania.
“The demographics of home-brewing are spreading out,” said Tullberg. “There are more people in the Midwest and East Coast (brewing beer) than 10 years ago. That’s because more people across the country are realizing that they can make good beer that suits their style of taste.
Compared to hobbies like photography, it’s easier and less expensive for a neophyte home-brewer to get started. The basic equipment and ingredients used in home-brewing cost less than $100, Leto said.
The most important pieces of equipment are the fermenter and the brew pot. The fermenter, an airtight plastic or glass container that usually has a capacity of six to eight gallons, is where the beer sits during the 7- to 14-day fermentation process. The brew pot, a five- to eight-gallon stainless steel or enamel pot, is used to boil the water, yeast, malt and hops-the ingredients used to make the brew that will be fermented.
At Leto’s store, the fermenter is sold for $39 in an equipment kit that also includes a bottling brush, an alcohol-tester, a siphon and air lock used to keep outside contaminants from entering the fermenter. The brew pot is sold for $15 at the store, which also sells beer bottles, bottle caps and other supplies.
Of course, Leto also sells canned malt extract and malt in bulk quantities, as well as hops and yeast. Leto estimates that a customer who had already purchased the basic equipment would spend approximately $20 for supplies to make a five-gallon batch of brew. The malt is the most expensive ingredient, costing about $15. Beginning brewers most commonly use malt extract, a syrup created by mashing malted barley.
Hops cost about $3, while yeast costs anywhere from $1 to $3, according to Leto. Hops, which are small flowers from a twining vine of the hemp family, are used to add bitterness and aroma to beer. Yeast, a living organism that comes in either a powdered or liquid form, turns the sugar in the malt into alcohol.
The process of home-brewing is relatively simple. To make the standard five gallons of beer, which will yield roughly two cases, the home-brewer starts by boiling two gallons of water, removing the boiling water from the heat, then adding malt extract. After adding the malt extract, the water is then returned to the heat.
Hops are then added to the water, which should boil for 60 minutes. After removing the wort-or unfermented beer-from the heat, the home-brewer then lets it sit in ice water for 30 minutes. The wort is then poured into a fermenter, where yeast is added, along with enough cold water to bring the total amount of liquid to five gallons.
The blend then sits in the fermenter for 7 to 14 days, during which the yeast breaks down the sugar in the malt and converts it into alcohol. After the fermentation process, the blend is mixed in a bottling bucket with a mixture of one cup of water and two-thirds of a cup of corn sugar. This mixture is then siphoned into bottles, which are capped and left in a dark, cool storage space for four to six weeks, during which time the additional sugar causes a mild refermentation that carbonates the beer. The brew is then ready for quaffing.
This is a standardized process followed by all home-brewers. However, almost every home-brewer experiments with different types or mixtures of malt, hops and yeast to come up with an idiosyncratic beer. For instance, if a home-brewer wants to create a more bitter beer, he or she adds more hops to the blend. The yeast the home-brewer uses also plays a role in the final product-a yeast that drops to the bottom of the wort produces a lighter lager, while a yeast that rises to the top of the wort creates a heavier stout or ale.
“There are so many options for the home-brewer,” Leto said. “There are probably 300 different brands of malt syrup, and there are a number of different types of hops.”
While his customers make their beer at home, Leto makes himself available by phone at his store to make sure they are on the right track. “Customers are always calling asking me, `Can you try my beer?’ or, `Did I screw anything up?’ ” Leto said. “And people are scared that if they do something wrong, someone will end up sick.” But, other than the possibility of exploding bottles caused by over-carbonation, “the worst thing that can happen if you make a bad batch of beer is that the beer will taste bad and the drinker will get a bad case of gas.”
That is something that rarely happens to Leto’s customers, many of whom attended the recent BUMS meeting at the Chicago Bar and Grill. Brian Mate, 38, of Palos Hills, said he has never made a bad batch of beer, even though he was introduced to home-brewing by Leto only four months ago.
“If you were to buy this kind of quality beer in a store, it would cost a fair amount of money,” said Mate, while holding a bottle of one of his dark beers. “Everything I’ve made is as good as or better than some of the best domestic beers on the market, like Samuel Adams.”
While Mate is a relative newcomer to home-brewing, Dan Lozynski-another BUMS member-has been brewing sporadically for 20 years. Lozynski, a computer consultant from Mokena, was first introduced to home-brewing by his father 20 years ago. He’s been brewing off-and-on ever since.
“I really resurfaced two years ago,” Lozynski said. “Now I’ll make a five- or six-gallon batch once a month for my own personal consumption. It’s more than a hobby to me, it’s a life-long endeavor.”
Selling home-brewing supplies has become a life-long endeavor for Leto. Still, he and his family haven’t stopped selling brand-name alcohol. Country Food and Liquor, which used to sell only 50 different brands of beer, now sells 475 brands, including imports from Thailand, Belgium, Korea and Brazil. These imports are giving the common domestic beers a run for their money at Leto’s store.
“Americans are used to drinking beer that’s crystal clear with no body and no flavor,” Leto said. “So they’re pleasantly surprised when they come across some of our imports.”
Despite the eclectic brand selection, however, Leto’s store is best-known for his home-brewing section. That fact is mildly surprising to Leto, who has relied primarily on word-of-mouth to attract customers to his store.
“I wasn’t excited when we started selling home-brewing supplies,” Leto said. “I was like a lot of people who think that home-brew was something that grandma or grandpa would make in the bathtub. But it’s paid off for us.
“Retailing is a tough go, but we have fun because of the home-brewers.”
