Shayna Kleinberg
September 9, 2013
Multimedia Storytelling
First Draft
Home Brewing
“You wouldn’t call me an expert, I’m just a huge beer fan,” said Justin Cerone,
23, recent Tulane graduate and home brewer who cooks up batches of beer in his
basement right outside of Philly. Since his first brew, Cerone has developed a deeper
connection with beer, making drinking more of an experience based on quality of flavor
and craft, with less focus on getting drunk.
“The coolest part about home brewing is that it makes drinking beer a different
process,” said Cerone.
It all started when Cerone did an accounting internship at Nola Brewery in New
Orleans. Even though he was counting numbers, Cerone was still fascinated by the
brewery and how beer was brewed at such a large scale.
“Nola brewery lit a fire under my ass to get this thing going,” said Cerone.
“I always had in interest in good craft beers, but after working at Nola I really had
what I needed to get started home brewing.”
Although Cerone currently brews on a small scale as a hobby, he still takes his
brewing process very seriously, fusing the effort he puts into making his beer with the
passion of the drinking experience.
“Not only do I know about the process but now I like to try beers with the mindset
of ‘what can I pick out in terms of the flavors, in terms of the hops? Is there something
about the flavor that id like to apply to my own beer?’” said Cerone.
“I now notice the flavor profiles the beers will give. By doing it yourself you
familiarize yourself with the ingredients and it allows you to confidently decipher what
you like and what you dislike,” said Cerone.
When Cerone first started brewing he bought the brew kits they sell at Bed, Bath
and Beyond called “Mr. Beer”, where the kit provides a plethora of brewing tools, tips,
recipes, instructions and other handy information. The kits hold your hand through the
process, and are helpful for beginners by providing the ingredients and brew tools.
“When you start home brewing small five gallon batches they come in kits and
you get all your ingredients preassembled with instructions on how to brew different
styles of beer. It’s pretty simple, follow the instructions and you won’t mess up pretty
much. I did six or seven on my own and two with my roommate and more when I got
home from college this summer,” said Cerone.
“Once I got comfortable with just the process of a brew day I felt more
comfortable, not necessarily creating recipes out of thin air, but reading clone books to
help get recipes for beers I liked. You can literally say ‘I like anchor porter’ and go to a
book and find out the recipe as a home brewer,” said Cerone.
According to the home brewing stats released by the Homebrewers Association of
America there were one million recorded homebrewers in 2012. Cerone, like many other
homebrewers, uses the Internet, books and just talking to other brewers as a way to learn
new tricks, pick up new recipes and gain flavor ideas to help pick ingredients for new
batches.
“I use a lot of recipe websites for home brewers and look up recipes from other
people, then pick out the continuity between recipes, pick out what I like and then I go
into the home brewing store and pick out what I need,” said Cerone.
Although Cerone has no intentions on selling his brews, so far he has successfully
accomplished nine batches of beer, some of which include beer styles such as India pale
ales, pale ales, summer beers, and other wheat brews.
“I brew with extract so it’s called extract brewing. I use grains but I don’t use the
grains for the fermentable purposes I use them for the flavor, aroma and color. Once u get
into mashing, whether it’s partial or full mash all your grains are going to be fermentable.
For extract brewing and specialty grains it’s like the lowest on the totem pole more or
less,” said Cerone.
For extract brewing, Cerone’s typical brew day takes about three to four hours
with one to two pounds of specialty grains. The beer is brewed, fermented in an airtight
container for two weeks, then left to sit in the keg or bottles for an additional two weeks.
“The longer the beer sits in the bottles the better the flavor”, said Cerone.
“He got a lot of his supplies off of Craigslist, starting brewing in his basement
and he’s pretty much is self taught,” said Josslyn Gray, 23, long time friend of Cerone’s.
Cerone keeps his beers in a small three-gallon keg in his basement and what can’t fit
in the keg is portioned into recycled beer bottles. Currently, Cerone has a black IPA on
tap which is a Cascadian dark ale, a dark hoppy beer made with west coast style hops and
yeast typical of Washington or Oregon. The black IPA has a piney, earthy flavor from the
hops, not too bitter and a little toasty, with an alcohol percentage of 6.2, heavier than your
standard beer.
“His beer has good flavor, but you can also taste all the leg-work, love and effort
he puts into every batch. It’s awesome,” said Gray.
Now, Cerone has a blonde hoppy ale fermenting that he hopes to soon place into
bottles to share with his friends.
“I’ve never been so passionate about a hobby or had this much fun. Not just drinking
but the technical side too. I just love it,” said Cerone.
Sources
Josslyn Gray 484-467-2219
Justin Cerone- 610-547-5820
Homebrewers Association of America –
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/lets-brew/history-of-homebrewing