One Wisconsin Homebrewer’s Lager Infatuation
Although Middleton, Wisconsin hombrewer Eric Schoville has made many different styles of beers, he is “infatuated” with German lagers. “In particular, I enjoy Okotberfests and Pilsners, which I consider two of the hardest beer styles to make. Making lagers at home isn’t difficult, but you have to have the refrigeration capacity (I have three chest freezers that I bought when I used to brew much more frequently) and yeast managment is even more critical than when making ales.” His beers have won several awards, one of which gave him the chance to brew beer at a brewpub—having his own brewpub is now one of his long term goals.
Eric explained how he got into brewing: “My dad likes to drink beer, so I bought him a Mr. Beer Kit for father’s day in 1996. The kit sat around for a month, so I finally said, ‘I bought you the kit, and it looks like I am going to have to make it for you too.’ I remember the beer being very cidery, because the recipe called for a lot of table sugar. As I was drinking it I thought to myself that I could make better beer than this, so I started researching brewing. It wasn’t long before I bought a five gallon extract system. Then I joined the North Texas Homebrewers, and it wasn’t long after that that I started building my first all-grain system.”
In order to learn to brew Eric says, “At first, I just followed the horrible instructions that came with the Mr. Beer Kit. The five gallon extract system came with The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Papazian, and that got me started reading about the process. More books followed. Home brewer websites let me see what other people were doing, and the HBD got me more involved in the community and acted as a sounding board for problems. At some point, you just have to dive into it. Meeting fellow home brewers and brewing with them is also a great way to learn.” Two of the books that Eric recommends for home brewers are New Brewing Lager Beer by Greg Noonan and Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels.
Eric explained the value he gets from these home brewers clubs, “My first homebrew club was the North Texas Homebrewers and I currently belong to the Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild. Being in a homebrew club is very valuable. You get to learn from and share ideas with other home brewers, but getting together regularly and tasting other people’s homebrews is probably the most valuable aspect of it for me, because I can get feedback on how I am doing and I can be inspired when I taste something new.”
In conclusion Eric offered the following advice to people who are interested in getting involved in home brewing, “Brewing is a lot like cooking. If you like to cook, then you will probably like to brew. Brewing can also be as easy or as complex as you want to make it. You don’t have to go crazy with your brewing set up to make a good beer. Try to do a full boil, keep everything clean and sanitized, and pay attention to your yeast management. Share your beer with friends and get them interested in good beer!”
Those interested in learning more about Eric’s brewing can visit his website at http://schoville.com/brewing.php, which info about his 3 tiered home brewery, including an article on keg conversion and a description of his immersion wort chiller.
