The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, February 5, 2009 - 3B
The art of
home brewing
nn Arbor is home to a
large foodie popula-
tion, so it shouldn't
be a surprise that students
are brewing
their own
beer. These
students
share a sub-
tle passion
for the art of
brewery as '
well as for its KARA
final prod- MORRIS
uct. Just ask
around - you've probably met
a closet brewer.
} The beauty of home brew-
ing is that you can adjust the
ingredients - and alcohol
content - to your tastes. Even
on a bad day, your home brew
will likely be better and less
expensive than anything you'd
find at Campus Corner. The
delicate process, which often
involves a simmering concoc-
tion of obscure ingredients and
a couple good friends, is just a
cauldron away from Macbeth's
witches' brew.
A second pleasure of home
brewing is developing a keen
understanding and appre-
ciation of where your drink
actually comes from. This
was immediately apparent
when I met LSA junior James
Graessle. While his roommate
prepared a loaf of honey wheat
bread, James explained how he
put cherry concentrate in his
latest concoction.
Commenting on his previ-
ous batch, he mentions, "I like
it, it's good beer ... to go out
and buy nice beer, it's a lot of
money." He calculates that this
batch, which yielded about two
cases of "good beer," only cost
about $30.
James brews with two of his
roommates and mentions that
they taught themselves to brew
using online resources. He uses
malt extract, which is quicker
than traditional all-grain
"mash" brewing. In this process,
the final brew must sit in the
dark for a week before adding
sugar, bottling it and waiting
about two to six more weeks.
For those interested in
brewing, he has three key rec-
ommendations: regulate the
temperature closely, sterilize
carefully and avoid exposure
to light during fermenta-
tion. James recommends Ann
Arbor's Beer Depot and men-
tions that brewers will need a
kitchen and some room - or
at least a closet - to brew and
ferment beer.
Home brewing is also an
excellent means of develop-
ing your palate. Fodie Oren
Brandvain, LSA junior, also
brews with his roommates. He
enjoys it because of the beer's
quality and comments that
he has developed a taste for
better brews as a result. Oren
brews by the "all-grain" brew-
ing process, which combines
steeped grains, "the mash,"
hops and yeast after cooling.
The mixture is fermented for
two weeks in a carboy before
adding sugar and bottling for
seven to 10 more days.
Oren's advises any aspiring
brewer who wants to refine
his or her palate to keep a very
detailed journal and record
minutiae like temperature
readings throughout the
process. That way they can
account for different tastes
between batches. He also
stressed the importance of san-
itation: "If it's not completely
sanitized, it might taste sour."
If the timing and strict tem-
perature regulation involved in
beer brewing are too daunting,
there are a few other options
for those interested in knocking
back a homemade brew. In addi-
tion to brewing beer, Juan Leon,
Music, Theatre & Dance junior,
makes his own hard cider.
Juan's enthusiasm for brew-
ing was immediately apparent
when he gave me a tour of his
brewing stations. Beside fer-
menting cider, Juan also makes
ginger beer; both were capped
with a carboy bung. A third
kind of brew, strawberry wheat
lager, rested in the cool, dark
basement.
Unlike beer, cider doesn't
need to be heated during
brewing. After prepping, Juan
introduces his own yeast from
U-Brew in Ypsilanti, which
he recommends because the
staffers are very helpful and
knowledgeable about the beer-
brewing process. He has tried
both champagng and ale yeast,
and he recommends cham-
pagne yeast for hard cider.
Juan stores the cider in a cov-
ered carboy at room tempera-
ture for two to three weeks
before bottling.
With three diversified drinks
in the making, Juan demon-
strates his commitment to
curiosity and the art of brewery.
For those who are interested
in brewing beer or hard cider,
Juan recommends that students
buy a kit to get started on a
project of their own.
"Really," he said, "it's all
about experimenting.
Few can match the excite-
ment of first-year Rackham
student Tim Friese as he
explains his mead-brewing
process. Mead, as Tim
explains, is a 20-40 proof
honey wine. He started brew-
ing the drink several years
ago because the only mead
he could find was watery and
expensive.
Brewing mead requires a
few more ingredients than
cider, but it uses a very simi-
lar process. Tim uses Bryan
Acton and Peter Duncan's
book "Making Mead" as a
guide. He pours gently heated
honey and water into a 6.5 gal-
lon carboy before adding the
remaining ingredients, which
include citric acid, tannins and
champagne yeast. In a slightly
arduous process, Tim shakes
the large bottle before filling it
to the top with water and let-
ting it ferment for two to three
months.
Revealing his love for the
art of brewery, Tim described
how he experiments by adding
fruit like lemons or peach con-
centrate. The addition of the
peach juice was his most recent
success. He has also tried add-
ing different types of honey,
like clever and wildflower
varieties. Tim does not, how-
ever, recommend eucalyptus
Crafting the
ideal draught.
tree honey, saying that his last
eucalyptus brew "smelled like
dirty socks - but actually had
the most character."
Tim zealously encourages
anyone who's interested in
brewing to at least try it. He
stresses the importance of
documenting the process and
labeling the carboys so it's easi-
er to see how different ingredi-
ents affect the final brew.
Apart from a love of brewing
and the brew itself, the most
common theme I found during
my home-brewed inquisitions
was the sharing of the spoils.
So, if you've been craving a
good brew at a pauper's price,
grab a few good friends and
take a trip to The Beer Depot.
Morris is looking for the right
hops. To donate your stash, e-mail
her at karamomoaumich.edu.
Mary E. Cooley, Roy W. Cowden and students reading in the original Hopwood Roor in the 1
Honoring progressive writing
For 78 years, the Hopwood
Awards have been cultivating
literary culture in Ann Arbor
By PRIYA BALI
Daily Arts Writer
By Tuesday at noon, piles of writing submis-
sions will have formed in 1176 Angell Hall, better
known as the Hopwood Room. For the 78th year
in a row, selected works of poetry, fiction, nonfic-
tion and screenplays will be awarded all in the
name of Avery and Jule Hopwood.
The Hopwood Awards is widely considered
among the largest and most prestigious writing
contests in the country. Avery Hopwood, a play-
wright and University alum from 1905, wrote in
his will that the University should use one fifth of
his estate toward a writing contest that held the
Hopwood name.
Although he became one of the most popular
playwrights on Broadway in the early 20th centu-
ry, he was troubled by the possibilitythat his writ-
ing would never be remembered as extraordinary.
He decided to leave his unfulfilled dreams up to
future writers instead, calling the competition
a challenge that should exemplify "the new, the
unusual and the radical." Since 1931, Hopwood's
goal of encouraging creative expression in young
writers has been vividly active at the University.
"To the degree that Ann Arbor is a town cel-
ebrated for its authors, this is part of that. The
bookstore culture, reading culture and the writ-
ing community - all are importantly sustained
by +h holen erievnce of t henwoosm ai d
Prof. Nicholas Delbanco, director of the Hopwood
Program for over 20 years.
"We're inhabiting a very old space and honor-
ing a long-established tradition," he said.
In addition to the Undergraduate and Graduate
Hopwood Awards, the Hopwood Program admin-
isters 13 other writing contests, including the
Arthur Miller Award and the Kasdan Scholarship
in Creative Writing, which were named after two
renowned recipients. Other well-known winners
include Robert Hayden, Frank O'Hara and Uni-
versity Creative Writing Prof. Laura Kasischke.
Submissions have continued to grow since the
program's inception in 193L And although only a
few of these submissions are eventually bestowed
with awards, the program has certainly accom-
plished what Hopwood wished it: encouraging
student writing.
After submissions have been read by a pre-
liminary set of judges, chosen works are sent to
national judges who are not associated with the
University. All submissions are sent in anony-
mously, making the contest as close to objective
as possible.
"Any artistic contest is so much shaped by
elements that are outside the work itself, includ-
ing the subjectivity of the reader and simply the
quality of perception of the reader," said Keith
Taylor, a creative writing lecturer in the Depart-
ment of English and former judge of the Hopwood
Awards. "Quality does find a way to get to the top
sooner or later but you can't be absolutely sure of
the process."
Writing in and of itself can be immensely dif-
ficult, but crafting one's work for a contest can
feel even more daunting. Still, there's something
more to be said of winninga contest like the Hop-
woods.
"I always thought
they were very vindicat-
ing - winning an award
makes all those nights
alone in your room with
paper and a pen worth
it," said Beenish Ahmed,
RC Creative Writing
senior and winner ofsev-
eral Hopwood Awards.
"The most remarkable
thing about the writing
scene in Ann Arbor is
that there is one."
"A writer will never
be homeless here," she
said.
One doesn't need to
look far to realize that
encouragement of stu-
dent writing goes beyond the monetary value of
these awards. A campus saturated by interest in
the arts, the University - and, moreover, Ann
Arbor - is made up of a supportive community
that understands the extent to which writing
reaches a larger audience.
"I think what I learned in Ann Arbor was how
to seek out a second set of eyes and ears when I
need them and how to be my own best editor,"said
Matthew Hittinger, a 2004 MFA graduate who
now lives and works in New York City. "I had an
outlet to share my work and the floodgates opened
when I got there." Hittinger was the recipient of a
Hopwood Award for Poetry and the Helen S. and
John Wagner Prize in 2004.
Student-run literary publications like Xylem,
the Oleander Review and Interrobang Literary
Magazine, along with poetry and fiction read-
ings sponsored by the Hopwood Program and the
MFA Program, are only a few examples ofhow the
power of the written word can't help but resonate
throughout this arts-hungry college town.
"Only in Ann Arbor would you have two
readings going on in the same night," Hitting-
er said. And he's right. When he gave a poetry
reading at Shaman Drum in November from
his book "Pear Slip" (winner of the 2006 Spire
Press Chapbook Award), another reading was
being given at Crazy Wisdom, a local bookstore
on Main Street.
Although poetry has remained grounded in its
own subculture, its relevance is undeniably pres-
ent inAnn Arbor. The city's abilityto both encom-
pass the nation's largest writing contest and
become the backdrop against which close-knit
groups of writers and readings flourish make such
relevance possible. This is the stuff Ann Arbor's
rare and expansive literary culture is made of.
The same can be said of the Ann Arbor Arthur
Miller once knew.
Delbanco has inserted a portion of the play-
wright's autobiography in the introduction to his
book on the Hopwood Awards: "Outside, Ann
Arbor was empty, still in the spell of spring vaca-
tion ... I ran up to the'deserted center of town,
across the Law Quadrangle and down North Uni-
versity, my head in the stars ... The magical force
of making marks on a piece of paper and reaching
into another human being, making him see what I
had seen and feel my feelings - I had made a new
shadow on the earth."
Like so many others, this is a place where
Miller's realization of his life as a writer was first
hatched and the place where his dreams were
validated. It is also, remarkably, the same place
where a similar dream was ripened for writers
like Ahmed and Hittinger, and now, for manyof
those who will submit their work Tuesday.
k