Kleve’s hoppy hobby allows for creativity, experimentation

Jon Kleve had a home brewing kit in his closet for five or six years before he first gave it a try. Eight years later, home brewing has become one of his main hobbies.

“You have endless possibilities of things you can do and things you can experiment with,” Kleve said. “It’s forgiving in a lot of cases. You can make some mistakes and still end up with a great product.”

He added that he likes that home brewing is interdisciplinary, noting that it can teach a person about water chemistry and microbiology as well as history and culture, since beers differ based on what resources are available to different cultures.

Kleve is a 10-year U.S. Air Force veteran who currently serves on the Holyoke School District Board of Education. His wife Amy is the pharmacist at Melissa Memorial Hospital. They have six children ranging from 2-13 years old, with a seventh due in July.

“I think my wife gave me the ultimatum,” he said about his start in the world of home brewing — “‘Are you going to use this or throw it out?’ So I gave it a shot,” he said.

His first batch ended with shattered bottles in the closet after they exploded, but Kleve said this is not unheard of and is actually pretty standard for beginning brewers.

“It didn’t go as well as I planned, but I kept after it,” said Kleve.

After that, he did more research and made sure the batch was fully fermented before bottling. He also used actual brewing yeast and the right amount of sugar.

Since then, Kleve said he can count on one hand the number of really bad batches he had to dump. He said even the batches that weren’t great but weren’t bad enough to dump were still palatable, and he learned how to make it better in the process.

“Every once in a while you’ll have a batch that doesn’t go as planned,” he said, remembering the time he tried brewing with ears of corn, which he said did not go well. “That was unpleasantly corny,” he said with a laugh.

He began the process of experimenting a little here and there with different ingredients and different parts of the process, seeing what works.

He started out making 1-gallon batches but now makes 2.5-gallon batches. He said most home brewers make 5-gallon batches.

“I like to say I have brewing ADD,” he said, adding that he likes to try out new batches in 2.5-gallon batches and then move on to a new one.

Brewing smaller batches allows Kleve to make more. He estimated that he’s made 70-80 batches, sharing some of them with friends as gifts.

Kleve uses the spare basement bathroom in his home for brewing, which allows for easy cleanup and temperature control. He said some brewers use the garage, but that can make it more difficult to control the temperature.

His advice to anyone interested in this hobby is to not be intimidated by it.

“It seems like there’s a lot of equipment and buy-in for it, but a lot of people make their own equipment too,” he said, adding that someone can make it as complicated or as simple as they want.

He said the basic equipment needed to get started includes a fermentor, a mash tun and a boil kettle.

 Kleve uses a glass carboy as a fermentor, but other options are available. Coolers are commonly used as a mash tun, where grain and hot water steep. A boil kettle can be a stainless steel kettle used to boil water. Hoses and transfer siphons are also some equipment basics.

He added that sanitation is very important in home brewing. “You’re going to be washing a lot of dishes,” he said.

In terms of the process, he said actual brewing takes a few hours. He soaks the barley and grains in hot water, which converts the sugars to maltose.

He then drains the water, which is called sweet wort at this stage, and boils it for 60-90 minutes. He adds hops during the boil, and this is also the time that other flavors are added to the brew. Kleve has used green chile, honey, yucca flowers, spruce tips, orange peel, coriander and more.

Lately he has been using Norwegian farmhouse yeasts, which ferment at a really high temperature and have a lot of different characteristics.

Kleve said one of his favorite beers he’s made was a Colorado beer using all Colorado malt, Centennial hops, yucca flowers and spruce tips.

“It sounds a little busy, but it turned out really well,” he said.

The brew is then strained and cooled, and it is called wort at this point in the process. It is then put into a fermentor.

He then cools the brew to a temperature that won’t shock or kill the yeast, which is added next. Kleve said it’s important for the wort and the yeast to be about the same temperature.

He uses both liquid and dry yeast, pointing out that it depends on what kind of beer he’s making and what yeasts are available.

The next step is to seal the fermentor, and the airlock Kleve uses on his carboy prevents outside air from entering while allowing carbon dioxide to escape.

Temperature control is very important at this point, since different brews ferment at different temperatures. Kleve said lager ferments at 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit, ales at room temperature and some brews using Belgian yeasts at 80-90 degrees F or more.

This range of options allows for a lot of variables and experimentation when brewing. Kleve said a lot of English yeasts can change the character of the beer based on where the brewer sets the temperature.

The colder a brewer ferments the brew, the longer the process takes. Kleve said he has completed batches in two days, two weeks and anything in between. He said he typically checks on the brew to make sure the yeast is active and working, and he keeps dry yeast in his refrigerator as backup in case the yeast isn’t fermenting well.

After fermentation, Kleve said there are two options. The brew can be bottle carbonated, in which he transfers the liquid to another carboy with a sugar solution and then seals it in bottles.

Kleve said it typically takes two weeks to fully carbonate in the bottles, and while he still occasionally uses this method, he said filling and capping each bottle can get a little tedious. He said people should be patient if they choose to go the bottle route.

He said the quicker and easier option is to put the brew in a keg, using a bottle of carbon dioxide with a pressure regulator to force-carbonate it.

Brewing is not just for beer, either. Kleve added that following the process but bypassing fermentation by going from the boiling step to the keg step allows him to make soda that his kids can enjoy. He has made root beer, cream soda, citrus fizz and more using a different keg.

He said one of the goals of brewing is to get consistent in remaking a batch, and half the fun for him is trying to replicate a great brew.

With so many options and opportunities for experimentation, home brewing can suit many different tastes.