W
hen it comes to beer, business is brewing and it shows no signs of going flat.
A Jan. 15 report by the Brewers Association notes America has reached its highest number of breweries since the 1870s: 2,722. This includes 1,376 microbreweries and 1,202 brewpubs. In addition, the American Homebrewers Association reported in 2012 that 80 percent of homebrewing supply stores reported an increase in sales of starter kits, resulting in a 26 percent increase in gross revenues.
Nich Lohman, Iola, started brewing his own beer about three years ago when he bought a starter kit at Bacchus and Barleycorn in Lenexa. Lohman is originally from the Kansas City area and moving to a smaller community meant that some things were not readily available. Iola is lacking in Indian restaurants, for example, so he learned to cook his favorite dishes. Brewing his own beer seemed like a logical thing to learn next.
“I like to do things myself,” Lohman explained. “I don’t do this for other people. I do this because I want to. I think it’s great if people enjoy it, but it doesn’t bother me if they don’t. People have different tastes.”
Lohman has made wheat ale, stout, Belgian-style ales and more. He is planning to try a honey pale ale and plans to brew one batch as an ale and another as a lager so he can compare the two.
“After you make a few batches, the mystique kind of falls away and it’s really not a difficult process,” he said.
He even makes his own cider, which he said is actually cheaper and easier to make than beer. He estimated that five gallons of Musselman’s cider was about $20, plus a $5 packet of yeast and some honey or corn syrup for a total of about $30 for five gallons of hard cider.
For beer, he spends anywhere from $25 to $50 for ingredients. He estimated the original startup cost for equipment ran about $100 to $150.
LOVE is contagious, and word of Lohman’s homebrewing adventures soon caught the attention of Tony Works, Humboldt. Unlike Lohman, Works didn’t become interested in learning about all the different kinds of beer in the world until after he started making it, himself. He had studied chemical engineering at K-State before switching majors to literature, and the idea of homebrewing appealed to the craftsman in him.
“There’s a lot of chemistry in homebrewing,” Works said. “But I think it also has a creative side to it that drew me in.”
Works began brewing about a year ago, opting to buy his supplies online. He has already experimented with pale ale, stout and cider. He is waiting for a batch of honey mead to mature.
“There’s so many variables to play with. It’s really got a complexity that’s enriching to explore,” he said.
Another thing that appeals to both Lohman and Works is that brewing fits nicely into their busy schedules.
