In Durham, brewing beer begins at home, saves money

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - James Kinn pulls a two-liter bottle out of his refrigerator and sets it down on his kitchen table, along with two glasses.

“It looks like lemonade,” he says.

But it isn’t lemonade; it’s Grodziskie, a Polish beer made with smoked wheat that dates back at least several centuries.

And Kinn brewed it all in his garage, with just a few hundred dollars worth of equipment.

Kinn, a retired Environmental Protection Agency physicist who worked out of Research Triangle Park, has been homebrewing for more than 25 years and said the craft has grown immensely since that time.

“Everybody’s homebrewing now,” said Matt Pennisi, a Durham homebrewer and the founder of Durty Bull Brewing Company.

For many homebrewers, the process can save a lot of money.

Kinn said a five-to-six gallon batch, which is equal to about two cases worth of beer, costs between $15 and $20 in expenses, a small fraction of the retail price for commercial craft beer.

But homebrewing isn’t about saving money, he said, “it’s more of an I-can-do-it kind of thing.”

According to Homebrewers Association’s 2014 Homebrew Supply Shop Survey, revenues increased by 10 percent in 2013 for shops that supply homebrewing equipment.

Durham’s only supply shop, Bull City Homebrew, saw double digit growth in customers for several years, said general manager Nate Cowles.

And many of the founders of Durham’s popular breweries started out as Cowles’ customers.

“It’s amazing to see how many customers have started breweries,” he said, mentioning many names including Fullsteam founder Sean Lilly Wilson. “It’s a small community of like-minded people.we keep it local; (now) I’m walking into their brewery or growler shop and giving them back the money they gave me.”

Now, he said that homebrewing growth has stabilized as more customers are looking for a “different niche” such as cider, wine and Kombucha making as the popularity of brewing beer has exploded.

Cowles said that customers brewing non-beer drinks make up about 22 to 24 percent of his total customer base, and he expects to see more commercial ventures in this area.

“That market will grow.expect to see more artisanal drinks,” he said.

These ventures include products like the Durham-based caffeinated tea brand Mati Energy, also a Bull City Homebrew customer.

And even if homebrewers don’t take their craft into the commercial realm, they still serve as an inspiration source for craft breweries across the country.

Kinn said the Grodziskie style was basically dead, even in Poland, but a surge in American homebrewers making it has brought it back into the eyes of the commercial market.

And breweries will even reach out to homebrewers for recipe development that may be too expensive or time consuming for the companies to undertake.

Cowles said breweries, such as Raleigh-based Lonerider, will hold competitions in which they select a homebrewed beer and then bring it into production.

Pennisi will be the latest of Cowles’ customers to turn his passion for homebrewing into a commercial venture, as Durty Bull secures a location in downtown Durham’s Central Park district.

“Durham is going to be a hotbed for breweries very shortly,” he said. “I think Durham is very comparable to the Portland area, which I visited and got a lot of inspiration.I can see Portland now is what Durham will be in the future.”

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Information from: The Herald-Sun, https://www.herald-sun.com