Chemistry senior Nicholas Catanzaro loves making beer. A lot.
So much, in fact, that he started ASU’s first and only home brewing club this semester to share beer and wine knowledge, recipes and good times with others.
Catanzaro, president of the Brewing Science Club at ASU, meets with six other members monthly to have “brew-outs” at his house.
“There is a science behind it,” Catanzaro said. “Being a chemistry major, I’m always working the science of brewing.”
He and others experiment with different ways to convert sugar into alcohol through a process known as fermentation.
Catanzaro said he was first introduced to home brewing in Afghanistan when he was a sergeant in the U.S. Army. A few members of his squad were making wine out of extra grape juice and he tried it, he said.
“I just kind of got into it from there,” he said.
Since his service in the Army, he’s working to make beer his profession. Catanzaro plans on attending the University of California at Davis after graduation to take part in its professional brewing program.
“There needs to be a beer revolution, especially in Arizona.” he said. “People just need to drink good beer. It’s all about taste.”
Catanzaro said doesn’t feel like people appreciate ‘real’ beer; they allow themselves to succumb to corporate advertising schemes, so he started the Brewing Science Club as a way for people to try something different.
Cantanzaro said the club is an extension of his hobby. He also belongs to the Arizona Society of Homebrewers, a homebrew club in the East Valley.
He and 150 other members promote home brewing appreciation and knowledge through the club’s monthly meetings and festivals.
President of ASH Ben Conner said the club has grown a lot since its founding in 1994. The club has more than 150 members in 2010, the largest ever.
Increased awareness is part of it, he said, but people are also starting to realize making good beer isn’t all that hard to do.
“You can make professional beer in your house,” Conner said. “Word is getting around that it is possible.”
People like the ability to choose what they drink, he said.
Conner compared home brewing to cooking and said people are able to get creative with the types of beer they can produce.
His club allows for members to exchange information with one another to perfect the art of home brewing.
“We’re not a drinking club, we’re a brewing club,” Conner said. “It’s all about the beer and making it good.”
Home brewing is something that has really taken off in Arizona, said Jeffrey Haines, owner of Brewers Connection, a home brew supply store in Tempe.
Haines purchased the store in 1999 because it was something he said he was very passionate about. It was and has always been a trendy business, Haines said, so he knew he was taking some risk getting into it.
“The first year I was downright depressed,” Haines said. “We just weren’t making it.”
Since then, he’s built the business up slowly, making Brewers Connection the largest selection of home brew supplies for beer and wine in Arizona.
“For a lot of years, people were a bit intimidated by it,” Haines said. “But once they see how easy it is to do, and they go ahead and get their feet wet and give it a try, it’s something that sticks with them for the rest of their lives.”
The growing number of clubs dedicated to home brewing has allowed more people to experiment with it, he said.
Haines said a lot of his customers are people that want to get into home brewing because they knew someone who did it. People get a great feeling out of making their own beer and practicing a 7,000-year-old tradition, he said.
“Fermenting beer and wine is very ingrained and has been for centuries in human culture,” Haines said. “It’s one of those things that’s always going to be preserved.”
Reach the reporter at dbjoraas@asu.edu
