Local homebrewers encourage beer drinkers
to try making their own ‘poison’

By Erin McClary
C & G Staff Writer

MACOMB TOWNSHIP — At a time when the national unemployment rate is topping 10 percent, beer enthusiasts may have a hard time forking over $8-$9 for a six pack of microbrew.

Making it yourself, though, could prove to be a tasty and rewarding hobby, say members of the Clinton River Association of Fermenting Trendsetters (CRAFT), a local homebrewing club.

“Homebrew can get you through times without any money, but money can’t get you through times without any homebrew,” says CRAFT President Mike Zukowski, a pharmacist in Roseville.

Zukowski said many of his club’s members live in the area, not far from Cap ‘n’ Cork Homebrew Supplies in Macomb Township, where owner Art Baarck offers a discount to CRAFT members.

Baarck, a Mount Clemens resident, is one of the club’s founding members and has been selling homebrewing supplies for 20 years. He said since the economy took a turn for the worse, business has picked up at his store, with people wanting to try their hand at making their own beer.

With Michigan’s unemployment rate the highest in the country, some residents are finding themselves with a lot of extra time on their hands. Baarck said many locals are turning to homebrewing as an inexpensive recreation they can do in their own basements.

“It’s not expensive with what you’re getting out of it,” Baarck said. “It’s a tasty hobby, and it’s as easy or as hard as you want to make it.”

Most of the homebrewers in clubs like CRAFT aren’t making beer that costs $5 a six-pack, he explained. Many are taking what they’ve learned from club meetings and making microbrew beer that would normally sell anywhere from $10 to even $25 dollars a six-pack, he said.

Right now, CRAFT has roughly 80 members, most of whom bring their significant others — and even kids — to the club’s monthly meetings, where members sample different styles of beer, share recipes, introduce older members to new trends and educate newcomers on techniques that have worked for years.

“We talk all things beer,” said CRAFT treasurer John Hilton, who currently has a five-gallon batch of “braggot” — a beer-mead blend of malt, honey and hops — fermenting in his basement.  “It’s just a community, a sort of brotherhood.”

A five-gallon batch, the amount CRAFT members typically make at a time, is the equivalent of about two cases.

Hilton, a Macomb Township resident, said he typically has four of his home-brewed beers on tap at a time. Sometimes he’s got lager; sometimes he’s got vanilla porter. Most recently, though, club members have been experimenting with bourbon barrels.

“There’s nothing like going down there, watching that fermentation go, and having the ability to tweak the beer a little bit because you want something a little different out of it,” he explained. “We make different styles for the holiday, adding fruit or spices. And it’s nice to share things with people, too.”

Zukowski and Hilton encourage people looking for a hobby to consider joining their club. Of its 80 members, CRAFT has 10 that are Beer Judging Certification Program (BJCP) ranked judges — and three of them are nationally ranked.

The club competes in state competitions, and several of its members hold national awards for their homebrew recipes. These reasons, Zukowski said, separate CRAFT from a drinking club that just makes and drinks beer.

“We’re one of the premier clubs — either the first- or second-largest homebrew club in the state with 80 members and the amount BJCP ranked judges we have,” said Zukowski. “We’re not just some guys standing around a kettle. We’re training these guys beer evaluation and how to make a beer from scratch.”

Both he and Hilton agreed that having 10 BJCP ranked members alone says a lot about their club.

“I have a master’s degree, and I’ve never studied so hard for something in my life to get only a 73 percent,” Hilton said of the BJCP test.

Zukowski said it was certainly as hard as his pharmaceuticals exam, and a physician in the club attested that it was right up there with medical school boards.

There are 28 different styles of beer, some with up to six sub-styles. From wood aging to sour ales and even old Belgian techniques, Zukowski compared homebrewing to a science of “engineering and cooking.”

“Some of our members go from knowing nothing to being nationally award-winning brewers in a year and a half,” he concluded.

Either way you stir it, however, CRAFT homebrewers say their appreciation and knowledge of good beer has proved to be a hobby drunken with rewards.

To obtain more information about CRAFT, visit the club’s Web site at www.crafthomebrewclub.org.

You can reach Staff Writer Erin McClary at emcclary@candgnews.com or at (586) 279-1118.