{"id":5663,"date":"2016-11-17T07:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=5663"},"modified":"2016-11-17T08:31:42","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T14:31:42","slug":"home-brew-master","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2016\/11\/17\/home-brew-master\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Brew Master"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOR LOCAL RESIDENT TIM WHITE, HOME BREWING IS A THOROUGHLY SOCIAL ACTIVITY<\/p>\n

STORY BY BRAD GOINS<\/p>\n

PHOTOS BY JASON CARROLL, monsoursphotography.net<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Local craft beer home brewer Tim White reckons the home brew craze in the U.S. began 22 or 23 years ago.<\/p>\n

It was a few years after that when White, then a Cypress, Texas, resident, took a tour of Houston\u2019s St. Arnold Brewery.<\/p>\n

The tour went fine. But what really caught White\u2019s attention was what he saw when the tour was over and he went out into the brewery\u2019s parking lot. A crowd of men were standing around throughout the lot \u2014 laughing, talking and, in general, enjoying themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s having a great time,\u201d White recalls. He asked a participant, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/a><\/p>\n

Tim White with Meg Quinn:
\u201cShe\u2019s a great brew assistant.\u201d
Photo by Jason Carroll
of Monsour\u2019s Photography<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What was going on was Houston\u2019s National Home Brew Day. One reason it took place in the St. Arnold\u2019s Brewery parking lot was that the brewery provided those in attendance with free hot water and yeast \u2014 two of the necessary ingredients for home brewing. With these ingredients, and the crushed grains they\u2019d brought with them, folks were making their home brews right in the parking lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey seemed to be having fun,\u201d says White.<\/p>\n

At the event, he was invited to a meeting of the Houston home brewing club Kuyhendahl Gran Brewers, or KGB. The KGB proudly describes itself as the \u201cHome of the Big Batch Brew Bash.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meeting went well, and one of the members gave White a flock of advice about how to get started on his own home brew operation.<\/p>\n

So how did that go? \u201cThat\u2019s a great story,\u201d says White. He wanted to make an American pale ale. He and his new brewing buddy worked together to create the recipe.<\/p>\n

White \u201cwanted to put some crushed wheat\u201d into the mix. The right amount of crushed wheat will, says White, give a beer a \u201cnice frothy head.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem with crushed wheat, it turns out, is that if you put in too much, you wind up with a wheat beer.<\/p>\n

When he was done with the brewing, White invited members of the KGB over to sample the product. When the home brewers had a sip, they laughed and said, \u201cThis isn\u2019t a pale ale.\u201d But they all loved the taste of the beer. White agreed; \u201cit was delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

White decided to christen his unanticipated brew his American Wheat beer. The story had a very happy ending when White\u2019s brew took home the award for best wheat beer at the next Texas-based Dixie Cup Homebrew Competition.<\/p>\n

A Social Home Brewer<\/b><\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve seen, what first drew White to home brewing was the social aspect of what the brewers were doing. White expanded on the social function of home brewing \u2014 first by brewing with his friends, and then by introducing an annual brew session for the men\u2019s group in his church: Cypress\u2019 Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by Jason Carroll
of Monsour\u2019s Photography<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

White says that \u201c25 guys [wound up making] 10 gallons of beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it happened, the church\u2019s priest, Father Sean Horrigan, was a beer aficionado. He worked with White on a pale ale White called Absolution Ale. Horrigan joked, \u201cYou have absolution, but only for venial sins\u201d \u2014 a joke that became White\u2019s slogan for the beer.<\/p>\n

White prepared one specially decorated case of Absolution Ale for the auction at the church\u2019s Spring Festival. White predicted the case would draw a bid of $100.<\/p>\n

But before the auction began, Father Horrigan told the crowd that not only did he drink the beer, but he also helped make it. The case wound up selling for $700.<\/p>\n

Easy As Makin\u2019 Coffee<\/b><\/p>\n

White relocated to downtown Lake Charles a year ago. \u201cI love Southwest Louisiana and wanted to make it home,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In his 15 years of home brewing, White says he\u2019s had a good record of avoiding the well-known problems faced by home brewers \u2014 exploding bottles and so forth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been very fortunate. I\u2019m pretty big about sanitation and sterilization. One problem brewers have is cleanliness …\u201d In the presence of bacteria, \u201cthe batch of beer will become infected …\u201d Infected beer will both smell and taste bad. As one poster wrote on the site Beer Advocate, \u201cIf your beer tastes like pure rubbing alcohol, it\u2019s infected.\u201d<\/p>\n

White maintains that it\u2019s not all that difficult to make a good home brew. \u201cIf you can make a pot of coffee in a drip coffee maker, you can make beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

He points out the similarities between the two processes. To make beer, one boils crushed grain in water to get a mixture known as \u201cwort.\u201d Hops and yeast are added to the wort, which is then kept in darkness for two weeks. If the conditions are right, the result is fine-tasting beer.<\/p>\n

Note that those conditions include strict climate control. White says beer should only be aged at a temperature between 68 and 70 degrees F. One implication of that is that beer can\u2019t be aged in the interior environments of most Southwest Louisiana homes unless it\u2019s placed in some sort of reliable cooling device that allows for temperatures to be measured and adjusted.<\/p>\n

The Porter That Keeps\u00a0<\/b>You Cool<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cMy beer meets the two criteria of all my friends who enjoy beer,\u201d says White. \u201cIt\u2019s cold and free.\u201d<\/p>\n

White reckons he\u2019s made 40 different styles of beer during his home-brewing career.<\/p>\n

Early on, White asked Father Horrigan to write down his comments about White\u2019s beers. The Father made many positive comments. But his most enthusiastic remarks were reserved for White\u2019s Oktoberfest beer. Horrigan wrote simply, \u201cOktoberfest … Oh my God!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made a whole lot [of Oktoberfest beer],\u201d says White. \u201cAnd we\u2019re still making it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another big favorite is White\u2019s home-brewed porter. White says the term \u201cporter\u201d comes from the old practice of porters in British pubs who took the beer that remained on tables at the end of the night; poured it all in one big pitcher; and drank it. The mixtures that wound up in the pitchers were a combination of ale and stout.<\/p>\n

White\u2019s contribution to the porter legacy is his Purgatory Porter. It is, says White, a dark-colored, roasted beer with a note of chocolate. For its name, White again (obviously) turned to his Catholic roots; the brew\u2019s slogan is \u201cKeeps you cool while you wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there are other varieties. White works closely with his \u201cgreat\u201d brew assistant Meg Quinn to make such fan favorites as the Cowpoke Pale Ale and the Cowgirl Blonde.<\/p>\n

The Bar\u2019s Open<\/b><\/p>\n

White doesn\u2019t sell his home brews. But he\u2019s worked with those who sell theirs.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by Jason Carroll
of Monsour\u2019s Photography<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

One in particular stands out. \u201cThere\u2019s some good beer being made at Crying Eagle,\u201d says White. \u201cI\u2019ve brewed with their brewer. Beautiful beer. There\u2019s the prime example of a home brewer losing total control of himself\u201d and expanding his home-brewing operation into a large, well-known and successful business enterprise.<\/p>\n

For the time being, anyway, White keeps his enterprise simpler. \u201cI welcome people to come over and have a beer,\u201d he says. There\u2019s never any charge.<\/p>\n

When White\u2019s in the mood to serve free home brew, he turns on the sign outside his downtown Lake Charles house that reads \u201cWhite House Brewery.\u201d When folks see the White House Brewery sign illuminated, says White, they can be sure that \u201cthe bar\u2019s open.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOR LOCAL RESIDENT TIM WHITE, HOME BREWING IS A THOROUGHLY SOCIAL ACTIVITY STORY BY BRAD GOINS PHOTOS BY JASON CARROLL, monsoursphotography.net   Local craft beer home brewer Tim White reckons the home brew craze in the U.S. began 22 or 23 years ago. It was a few years after that when White, then a Cypress, [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38,4,1304,1305],"yoast_head":"\nHome Brew Master - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2016\/11\/17\/home-brew-master\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Home Brew Master - BestOfSwla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FOR LOCAL RESIDENT TIM WHITE, HOME BREWING IS A THOROUGHLY SOCIAL ACTIVITY STORY BY BRAD GOINS PHOTOS BY JASON CARROLL, monsoursphotography.net   Local craft beer home brewer Tim White reckons the home brew craze in the U.S. began 22 or 23 years ago. 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