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By Archive
from Salem Monthly, Section News
Posted on Sat Apr 01, 2006 at 11:17:44 AM PDT
Why buy when you can brew?
“Give a man a beer, and he’ll be happy for an hour. Teach a man to brew a beer, and he will be happy for a lifetime.”
Hidden away on 12th Street sits the most interesting of the places or beers yet to be featured here in Craft Beer Spotlight: Homebrew Heaven. Behind an inviting door festooned with a painting of a mythical looking stein, there rests the ingredients, vessels, and helpful knowledge used to craft your own beer.
Doug Faynor owns and operates Homebrew Heaven and has done so for more than 13 years. He also has 19 years of homebrewing experience. But what quickly became clear is that curiosity and cleanliness are the most important ingredients for homemade beer.
“If you can cook, you can make beer,” Faynor said.
He added later that the artistic and creative side of brewing one’s own beer is what first captures many people’s attention. While commercial breweries must cater to the purchasing public’s tastes, homebrewers can cater to their own likes.
“A lot of people who want a lot of variety homebrew,” Faynor said.
A remarkable difference in taste, Faynor says, can be found by changing the yeast in a recipe, perhaps one of the most underestimated ingredients in the modern landscape of new hop varieties emerging.
Homebrew Heaven offers a myriad of prehopped malt extract kits, recipes, magazines, and books. But perhaps the shop’s greatest advantage lies in the experience and knowledge of its owner and other customers. While homebrewing kits and supplies are widely available from online shops and stores, Homebrew Heaven provides its customers with personal service from its well practiced and award-winning owner along with the convenience of in-store purchases, without the hassle of automated phone systems or the delay of e-mail questions. The store also sells the necessary supplies and tools for crafting wines, ciders, and meads along with the homebrewed beer supplies.
The basic beginner’s kit for brewing includes a five gallon carboy (a large, glass fermenting tank) and the filters, air locks, and plastic tubing necessary for brewing a batch of ale. The equipment in the kit is enough to make five gallons. Faynor assured me that a large amount of space is unnecessary when brewing for the first time. Even a small, one bedroom apartment with a dark closet can be serviceable, he said.
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