When Blake Hass and a group of friends first decided to get into homebrewing they did so following the rules of the popular cooking show Chopped.<\/p>\n
They put several slips of paper, each containing the name of a bizarre ingredient, into a hat and picked at random to determine what type of beer they would brew. Hass drew \u201cFruity Pebbles\u201d and \u201coysters.\u201d It turned out about as well as anybody would imagine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was not the beer to start with,\u201d he said, laughing. \u201cWe kind of jumped into the deep end before we knew the fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now \u2014 six years and a lot of practice later \u2014 Hass runs the Alaskan Brewing Company\u2019s tasting room, and he\u2019s looking to help aspiring home brewers avoid some of his early mistakes.<\/p>\n
This Saturday, Hass and Steve Sano, a brewer with Alaskan, will be leading a how-to-homebrew workshop at the brewery.<\/p>\n
Eighteen years ago, the American Homebrewers Association dubbed the first Saturday of November \u201cLearn to Homebrew Day.\u201d It has been celebrating the homebrew holiday ever since, and this year Alaskan Brewing Company decided to get involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cJuneau has a pretty strong homebrewing community, but we always want to encourage more people to get into it,\u201d said Melissa Griffiths, a marketing specialist for the brewery.<\/p>\n
During the workshop Saturday, Hass and Sano will cover the basics of homebrewing. They\u2019ll teach participants how to select ingredients and form recipes. Workshop attendees will be able to taste ingredients from Southeast Alaska, such as Sitka Spruce tips, birch syrup and alder-smoked malt \u2014 Fruity Pebbles and oysters not included. Participants will also be able to taste beers featuring these ingredients.<\/p>\n
Gourmet Alaska \u2014 a Juneau kitchenware shop and \u201cthe go-to store for homebrewing,\u201d according to Griffiths \u2014 will give workshop attendees some basic brewing equipment and ingredients. The brewery will also be giving participants a copy of the American Homebrewers Association\u2019s Introduction to Homebrewing.<\/p>\n
In addition to the goodies, participants will leave with a base understanding of homebrewing, which Hass said is important to have, whether you\u2019re tackling an oyster stout or an American Amber.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a knowledge of homebrewing is very important; it gives you a whole new appreciation for beer in general,\u201d Hass said. \u201cGet the basics down. Learn the process, and once you have a good foundation, new things are a lot easier to try.\u201d<\/p>\n
This past spring, years after the doomed fruity oyster beer experiment, Hass and his friends tried another oyster stout. It was a success Hass credited to a firmer understanding of the fundamentals of fermentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of homebrewing,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t turn out, you might have a bad beer, but you\u2019ve still learned something.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those who want to learn a little something before they dive in, Saturday\u2019s workshop will run from 1 to 3 p.m. at the brewery in Lemon Creek. Tickets are on sale for there for $10. Tickets will be available at the brewery\u2019s downtown depot during First Friday if there are any left. The workshop will only be open to 35 people on a first-come-first-served basis.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n
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