by KYW's Paul Kurtz
The Philadelphia area has become a hotbead of hop heads -- homebrewers who push the federal law of 200 gallons per household per year to the limit.
Kyle Kernozek and his wife, Michelle Dickey, are sitting in the backyard of their home in Northern Liberties, keeping watch on a large, orange plastic container filled with warm water and grains -- mash.
"This is gonna be sitting and soaking, mashing, for about an hour. After this process we'll be going into sparging, which is rinsing the grains and trying to get as much sugar as possible out of the grains, at which point we'll have collected our final wort."
This is the first step in a three-to-four week process that will produce about two cases of beer, to be placed among the couple's already sizeable basement collection.
They've been brewing for about three years now and, like many homebrewers, speak about it with a passion that borders on fanaticism:
(Kyle:) "A lot for me is trying to understand beer better, trying to understand a lot of the flavors that go into beer, trying to understand the complexity of beer and what it can be."
(Michelle:) "The process is interesting and creation is interesting. To create something that suits your taste, particularly, to enjoy the process of it. And there's satisfaction of that comes out of being able to drink something that you've made."
Philadelphia has one of the largest homebrewing communities in America. George Hummel (right), owner of Home Sweet Homebrew, in center city, could be called the godfather of the movement:
"I started brewing in '84, opened the shop in '86."
Hummel sells everything from start-up kits for less than $100 to high-tech equipment costing thousands. But the sage advice is free:
"The most important thing is to sanitize the equipment you're going to brew with. You can discuss nuances of flavor, but if the beer's got a bug in it, it's not gonna taste good."
(Photos 1-3 by KYW's Paul Kurtz)
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