Show How NW Brew Your Without Own the to n Cleanup Josh White The Washington Post I love beer But when you love beer youre you're almost youre always forced to love someone else's beer 11 whether r y your ur favorite rite Is Jis brewed by Busch Anheuser-Busch or at a small on the West Coast The more adventurous can create a unique concoction in their own homes But that requires equipment time and storage space not to mention lots of cleaning For people like me who dont don't want to turn their homes into a scented hop-scented mini brew ery there is an easy tive Its It's called on Brew Premise A brewery lets you use its equipment store your fermenting beer in its coolers and bottle it when its it's ready You pick the ingredients you stir the kettle you reap the rewards I decided to give it a try at Shenandoah Brewing Co in Alexandria Va one of two inthe in inthe inthe the Washington area Customers there can make their own beer under the supervision supervision supervision super super- vision of Anning Smith and his wife and coI co- co I owner Laura Smith The hardest part is choosing what kind of beer to make Im I'm Ima a fan of a wide variety of beers My staple is Samuel Adams and its it's hard to resist a Guinness on tap A friend from Milwaukee introduced me to s t tit th a A mi 11 t r 10 ounces of black barley 12 ounces of caramel two pounds of chocolate malt and 10 ounces of roasted barley Ithen I Ithen Ithen then milled hand-milled the grains into a grain bag that is later tied to create what is essential- essential i b tuft Toll J I J s. s 9 of f. f J The The more more adventurous adventure e enor- enor n o 0 r- r Miller High m o 0 u s st Life the ous can create a t e a Champagne unique concoction in bag of Beers Those their own homes But My favorites mal malts t s sare are those that that requires equipment equip equip- p pro provide r o come with the v vide videt ide i d e ment time and storage winter season season sea sea- t h e eson son porters space not to mention b beer bee beeri e e r Catamount lots of cleaning i t s Porter originally co color lor nally natty from a b bas base a s e flavor f I av or orin in Vermont now owned by and sugar 1 T T J 1 A 1 w au IV v black porter from Russia that you can score at places like and Russia House Housein in Washington top Washington top top my list From the large erase dry-erase board listing Shenandoah's beers I chose the Chocolate Porter customers also may bring in their own beer recipes Anning Smith gave me a steam kettle and steered me to the back room From a row of white bins I scooped and measured measured measured mea mea- 1 pound of black malt L 1 Ul U vw 1 ounces of cluster hops and 22 ounces of cascade finishing hops the hops the ingredients that provide beer with its bit bit- To make Shenandoah's recipe my own I added 3 3 ounces of Hershey's cocoa Anning had already filled a kettle with 15 gallons of worta wort- wort a product of mashed grain and 2 gallons of water I boiled the wort to a steady degrees The tea bag full of the milled grain was dunked into the kettle and steeped just like Tetley Twenty minutes later the grain bag was squeezed and removed The mixture was brought toa toa to toa a rolling boil and in went the first round of hops very slow slow- JU ly 15 ca causing si g erupt iS s the e n now black t black w.-black t 1 liquid qu I I. I had to y kill more than an hour while the liquid boiled No problem The brewery has televisions positioned throughout the room a foosball foosball foosball foos- foos ball table assorted games and anda a pub with beers on tap and bar food Warren Danzenbaker 32 of Vienna Va was with eight friends who were celebrating a birthday We do what wed we'd doat do doat doat at a bar at night but were we're making beer at the same time said Danzenbaker whose group was making Copper Pale Ale a dark amber ale Mike Souza 42 of Alexandria Va was putting the finishing touches on his Holiday Happiness A taste revealed a little bit of everything everything everything every every- thing orange peel cloves cinnamon cinnamon cinnamon cin cin- namon honey and a very sweet finish the two quarts of maple syrup Souza confided Meanwhile a ne neighboring brewer had to save my batch from boiling over the edges of the kettle Oops After the addition of the finishing finishing finishing fin fin- hops and the cocoa the beer simmered then was drained through cooling tubes and emptied into a fermentation fermentation fermentation tion keg A taste revealed v 0 1 u u J j ij 1 something ome J. J lukert W J iC but Lap aJ aa Smith assured me that in three weeks it would taste like beer Yeast was poured in to feast on the sugars so that the beer will come out about 5 percent alco alco- hol I rolled the keg across the floor for eight minutes s' s sto to disperse disperse disperse dis dis- perse the yeast then left it to ferment I returned three weeks later As the brewer I got to put the beer into bottles fitted with my customized labels one of the great perks then my fiancee helped hand-cap hand the bottles with a My batch made about 5 2 1 cases of beer or about 12 ounce bottles The total cost was about per beer far less than you'd pay at atthe atthe the bar and a little more than you you'd d pay for a a high-end high beer at the store My label Deadline Dark Just in Time Porter A 49 percent percent perce per per- ce cent t alcohol chocolate porter with just a hint of cocoa at the finish |