Most homebrewers can quickly cite the favorite batch of beer they’ve ever brewed. Portsmouth resident Raymond McGill, founder of the Seacoast Homebrew Club, pointed to a double chocolate coffee oatmeal stout, better known as a Founders Breakfast Stout. For Dover resident Ken Dunnington, it was a chocolate hazelnut porter. Rochester resident Dan Caldwell was particularly fond of a dark caramel porter.

The homebrewing possibilities are virtually endless. Last fall, Dunnington brewed a pumpkin ale, made with a real roasted pumpkin smothered in maple syrup. Caldwell once cooked up a recipe he calls the “kitchen sink porter,” which included jalapenos, ginger, molasses, licorice.

It was the first batch of beer Caldwell had ever brewed, and he turned the occasion into a neighborhood social gathering.

“I had the radio going. The neighbors came over and we ended up having a bonfire right here in the driveway,” he said. 

Caldwell started homebrewing about a year ago and is now a member of the Seacoast Homebrew Club, which meets to share brewing tips, exchange stories and taste beers on the second Wednesday of each month from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Riptide Bar (on the second floor of The Chef’s Table) in Portsmouth. McGill founded the club last fall and now has about 25 members, with more joining up every month. 

“We learn about home brewing beer, wine, mead and cider,” McGill said. “Our objective is to help members craft the finest beer, wine, or mead on the Seacoast.”

With two new homebrew clubs in the area, a brand new supply shop in Portsmouth, and National Homebrew Day approaching, the Seacoast is in the midst of a beer renaissance.

Seacoast Homebrew Club members will gather outside A&G Homebrew Supply, a new shop at 175 High St. in Portsmouth, on Saturday, May 7, to celebrate National Homebrew Day by brewing a 10-gallon batch of Belgian witbier in the parking lot outside the shop, beginning at 10 a.m. 

A&G is the latest addition to a homebrewing community that has been rapidly swelling across the Seacoast. The Brethren Brew club in Dover formed a little over a year ago and now has roughly 20 members. Yeastern Homebrew Supply in Dover, currently open only on weekends, plans to extend its hours this month. Middle Street Market in Portsmouth now offers homebrew supplies, as well. 

Alex McDonald, who co-owns A&G with his wife Gretchen, has been homebrewing since the 1990s but stopped after several years because of the hassle of finding supplies. He again took up the hobby a couple of years ago, but the closest supply shops at the time were in Nashua and Portland, Maine, he said. 

Also a massage therapist, McDonald toyed with the idea of starting his own supply shop but hesitated after Yeastern Homebrew and Middle Street Market started offering supplies. After further consideration, though, he decided the growing homebrew and craft beer movements had created enough demand to go around.

“It’s certainly starting to explode around here,” said McDonald, who dreams of one day opening his own brewpub. “We’re hoping that the interest in homebrewing will help to catalyze that interest in craft beer and vice versa.” 

The art of homebrewing has been around since ancient Egypt, but modern equipment has made the craft more accessible than ever. A&G offers equipment kits with buckets for fermenting and bottling, airlocks, hoses, and other basic pieces of gear. The store also sells brew kettles, mash tuns, malt extract, grains, hops, yeast and more.

McDonald encourages beginners to pick up a prepackaged brew kit with ingredients and instructions for several different styles of beer, such as Belgian tripels, American cream ales, pale ales, or IPAs. 

“It gets more advanced as you want to progress from there,” McDonald said. “It depends on how involved you really want to get with it.”

The more work you put into a homebrew, the more you can customize the results to your liking. Prepackaged kits include a malt extract, but more advanced brewers can create their own extract with all-grain brewing. The technique requires a bit more time and equipment but can result in tastier, more affordable beer.

The science behind brewing and fermenting beer is complex, but the process is relatively simple. In fact, it’s pretty tough to screw up a batch if you get the right equipment and follow the instructions. Still, there’s always a learning curve. McDonald managed to botch his first attempt in the ’90s. 

“The first one I did was awful,” he said with a laugh. “It was so sour. We didn’t have our sanitation down. That’s really the biggest key is making sure everything that touches the beer after it’s boiled is perfectly clean.”

McDonald learned from his mistake, though, and has not had a bad batch of beer since—and he offers sanitizing products at the store.

“Once we got that down, we were producing great beer right out of the gate. And everybody that I’ve known that has started out as a beginner usually is producing pretty decent beer right out of the gate,” he said. 

Kevin Foss, founder of The Brethren Brew, can attest to that. He started homebrewing about two years ago and has enjoyed every bottle he’s brewed. 

“I haven’t had one batch of beer that wasn’t a palatable, drinkable beer, so I’ve definitely been lucky,” he said. “You learn from every single little mistake you make.”

The Brethren Brew holds occasional meetings to share experiences, and members often get together to brew beer. Foss said interest in homebrewing has surged dramatically since he first picked up the hobby. 

“Even two years ago, I barely ever ran into anybody who had done it or even tried it,” he said. “It seems like, even in the past six months to a year, there are so many more people that have been trying it.”

Over the 10 years since Ken Dunnington started brewing, he has amassed an extensive supply of equipment and materials. A batch of barley wine sat fermenting in his Dover home on a recent afternoon, and mini-kegs of finished oatmeal stout and Irish heavy stood in a refrigerator. 

Dunnington’s setup is on his deck overlooking the backyard, where he is growing hops. He uses a three-tier, gravity-fed, all-grain system consisting of two large coolers and a brew kettle. One of the coolers serves as a hot liquor tank, which is filled with heated water. The other serves as the mash tun, into which go all the malted barley and cereal grains. Water from the hot liquor tank pours into the mash tun and filters through the grains like a tea, producing a dark, syrupy liquid called a wort. The wort is boiled in the brew kettle for about an hour, with hops added during the process. Then it’s rapidly cooled to room temperature with a copper chiller. 

The liquid is then transferred into a fermenter and yeast is added. Dunnington ferments his beer for up to six weeks (one to two weeks in primary fermentatoin and two to four in secondary fermentation), occasionally taking readings of the alcohol content with a hydrometer. When it reaches the appropriate level, he bottles the beer and lets it age for another three weeks. 

The initial process takes Dunnington five to seven hours, and he usually works alone. “It takes a full day. “You’ve really got to set aside a whole day for it,” he said. But, when the work gets tedious, he remembers homebrewing guru Charlie Papazian’s mantra: “Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew.”

Dan Caldwell, by contrast, enjoys brewing in groups. His setup includes a pair of 15.5-gallon converted beer kegs, which produce 10-gallon batches. The cost of brewing a typical batch is around $40, he said, and produces close to 100 bottles of beer.

The Seacoast is now home to several commercial craft breweries, including Redhook, Smuttynose, and the Portsmouth Brewery. Throwback Brewery is expected to open soon in North Hampton. And most grocery stores now carry an array of craft beers from around the country and world. 

So, why go to the trouble of brewing your own beer rather than just buying a six-pack? To Caldwell, brewing delivers a sense of accomplishment.

“It’s kind of like fishing,” he said. “You can go to the store and buy a salmon filet, but it’s a lot more fun to catch it yourself. Same with beer.” 

Raymond McGill said there are many advantages of homebrewing, from hanging out with like-minded people, to saving money on quality beer, to tackling the challenge of reproducing your favorite styles. And, there’s a certain satisfaction that comes with sipping a fresh, cold ale you’ve brewed yourself.

“I’m a brewer. I’m not just a beer drinker,” he said.