Beer Fest celebrates brewer's craftiness

For the uneducated among us, it’s easy to assume that brewers — steeped in their work, talent and community — might find outsiders as undeserving of tricks of the brewing trade. If this is why you won’t be attending the Home Brew Festival at the Nightlight, you should think again.

At Carrboro’s Fifth Season Gardening Co., event co-organizers Caleb Rudow and Ethan Johnston navigate the intricacies of their home brew operation, pointing to organic and hydroponic gardening equipment and waxing poetic on the intricacies of brewing.

From the basil growing under lights to the “Brew Cave” stocked with all the essentials of brewing, the store is unique. But it’s also a burgeoning model of stores breaking into a market already associated with do-it-yourself products, sustainability and environmentalism.

Ultimately, beer brewing goes hand-in-hand with gardening.

“It’s all about caring for living organisms,” Rudow said.

Now approaching their fifth Home Brew Festival, the pair expects about 20 brewers to showcase their talents, some bringing multiple beers.

Overall, there will be about 30 beers ready for tasting in a process that takes several weeks’ dedication to monitor salt profiles, temperatures and pH levels.

Johnston said it isn’t surprising to find that a lot of professional brewers have a degree in microbiology or chemistry. But for Rudow, it isn’t just about the beer — it’s also about building a sustainable model.

While taste testing is free, they are asking for donations that will benefit Nourish International and the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Rudow sees major similarities between the three collaborating organizations.

“Nourish International and the World Home Brew Festival are similar in that we both have an entrepreneurial-based business model that focuses on donating money to good causes, but also doing it with a sound sense of business practices,” Rudow said.

Ultimately, it’s about a community of brewers. The Home Brew event will give brewers the opportunity to swap tips, successes and failures, but the venture also involves the community at-large through events like the Festival at the Nightlight.

Unlike major festivals like the recent World Beer Festival in Durham, Rudow noted that the Home Brew Festival occupies a different niche.

“Larger festivals such as the World Beer Festival and the Great American Beer Festival are great in that they have a large selection of breweries from a wide area,” he said.

“However, in many cases some of these breweries are only able to send a representative or have a volunteer assigned. In either case, the person serving the beer is probably unable to discuss their production in-depth.”

While brewer Tim Harper appreciates the variety of beers available at major festivals, he is careful about noting that not all of them can be “craft beers.”

For him, a craft beer company makes less than 10,000 barrels a year and is “more about experimentation and maintaining consistency by making smaller batches.”

The event is not only about the beer but throwing a great party. The Lizzy Ross Band and Gambling the Muse will play at the gathering.

While community and craft are important, for Rudow the most obvious reason to attend is as simple as a cold glass of beer.

“Please come,” he said. “We need people to drink all the beer.”

Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu