From left: David Ieong of Cambridge Brewing Company serves beer to Curt and Tina Wells as Joel Skoletsky and Andy Bollman chat with a friend during the General Store’s April 11 Brew-haha. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
From left: Marc Vilain, Dave Higgins, and Gina Leone calibrate their palates before the competition for the best homebrew begins.
Last Saturday, a crowd of locals gathered on the second floor of the General Store for “Brew-haha,” an afternoon of beer tasting and hops talk. Five commercial microbrewers, The People’s Pint, Baxter Brewing, Wachusett Brewing, Cambridge Brewing, and Berkshire Brewing, poured sample tastes of three or four of their most popular beers. Alongside the professionals, an enthusiastic crowd of amateur locals served cups of homebrew to thirsty attendees.
“We wanted to create a forum for commercial brewers and homebrewers to get together,” said General Store owner Scott Hayward during the event. Brewers of all experience levels spent the afternoon tasting and chatting about their craft. “Everyone here today is doing something they love. They want to share it, and they want to educate people about why it is special,” said professional brewer Geoffrey Newman, who works for the Baxter Brewing Company.
Homebrewers’ competition
In addition to a tasting of various micro- and homebrews, Brew-haha included competition among nine local homebrewers. “We put out the call to local brewers around Harvard and had a great response,” said Hayward. Thirteen homebrewers indicated interest in the competition, with nine ultimately entering their brews into the informal event.
Balancing a baby bottle and a sample, Lauren Derse talks with a friend as baby Robert sleeps.
From left: Steve Kenyon and Doug Williams listen as Doug Reedich discusses his ale, “Die Acetyl,” a name he chose as a joke about the yeast he used and was trying to kill.
The People’s Pint of Greenfield brought their lineup of craft brews.
Three judges evaluated the nine IPA-style (India pale ale) beers entered in the competition, which was organized by JC Ferguson, a Harvard resident and 24-year homebrewer. The judging panel included Dave “Higgie” Higgins, the head brewer at Wachusett Brewing Company, Gina Leone, a professional chef from Harvard, and Marc Vilain, a Harvard homebrewer of beer and mead. “I was looking for judges with good palates,” said Ferguson.
“There are some really good beers here today,” said Higgie, as he held a cup of amber-colored liquid to the light. The judges compared the nine entries to a “calibration beer,” a classic, commercial version of the style of beer being sampled in the contest. The judging panel evaluated each beer’s color, aroma, alcohol content, sweetness, carbonation, and taste against the standard style. After more than two hours of evaluation, an IPA was declared the winner. Cooper Toulmin of Lexington was given a plastic medal and, most importantly, bragging rights.
Measuring up
Contestants were eager to find out how their beer would measure up. While they waited for the judges to make their decisions, local brewers Doug Williams and John Mark Enriquez hovered nearby anxiously. Their IPA, Simple Gift, was one of the nine beers being evaluated. Williams, who likes to brew “full, substantive” beers, said that even though he was a little distracted by the competition, he was enjoying the opportunity to mingle with other beer enthusiasts. “You can tell these folks are proud of what they do,” he said.
The event drew interest from surrounding towns as well as Harvard. As the Good Intentions band played Irish, bluegrass, and Appalachian music in the background, dads wearing toddlers in baby carriers strolled amiably among the retirees and young couples checking out the event. Eliza Gray of Maynard, who had been out for a “mystery drive” with her boyfriend on the sunny Saturday afternoon, ended up at the Brew-haha by “serendipity.” They had been looking for a General Store that sold candy, which led them to Harvard. “We both like beer, so we decided to stay and taste a few. Why not?” she said, smiling. Gray’s tasting strategy was to ask the server for a pour of “whatever your favorite is” at each table. “I think you get the best when you let people show you what they love,” she said.
A selection of dried hops.
Just one of the Cambridge Brewing Company’s offerings.
Maybe next year
Harvard homebrewers Jason Ward and Raja Bala came to Brew-haha to “see what other brewers are doing.” They just got their first taste of their inaugural homebrew, an IPA, last week. “For our first brew, it turned out pretty well,” said Ward. Unfortunately, their beer was not ready in time to enter into the Brew-haha competition. “We hoped to enter but the dates were iffy, and then they were full by the time we were sure it would be beer,” Ward explained. But they hope to keep brewing and possibly enter next year’s event. “I like beer, but understanding all that goes into it is a little intimidating,” said Bala. “It’s a commitment to do it well.”
Doing it well matters. The most important difference between making beer in your kitchen and making beer for the masses is “consistency,” said Newman. “The science is the same, and the passion is the same, but commercial brewing scales it up. Attention to detail and consistency is a constant challenge. In commercial brewing, people expect the same product again and again. And the noticeability of small mistakes is magnified.”
Still, even among the professionals, there can be a sense of romance about amateurs brewing their own beer. The homebrewer is “part artist, part scientist, and part soul searcher,” said Woodley Wardell, a brand consultant from Baxter Brewing Company. “Any good beer, you can taste that character and soul, you can taste when they put that love in.” Ferguson agreed, saying, “There’s nothing like drinking from your own still.”
Passion for process
That passion for the process was evident in many of the interactions on Saturday. Homebrewer Cooper Toulmin of Lexington, the winner of the informal competition, was overheard complimenting another brewer on his beer. Toulmin asked about the hops schedule, and the two immediately became engrossed in a deep conversation about boiling schedules and flameouts. Toulmin’s enjoyment and appreciation of the camaraderie of the craft brewing was evident. “It’s a bug,” he said. “It just gets you.”
