"The best part is definitely the end result."
These are the words of Frank Hostetter, a fourth-year College student majoring in biology who has converted part of his University Circle apartment into his own home brewery.
Charlottesville is home to several more prominent breweries, among them South Street and Starr Hill, which are at different stages in the evolution of their brands.
Hostetter, who plans to attend medical school, took up home brewing as a hobby.
"I started earlier this year, and have bottled three batches," he said.
His fourth batch, a German Weizenbock brew, sits underneath a makeshift air circulator: a cardboard shaft leading from an air conditioning unit to the floor, where another cardboard box protects the beer from sunlight.
According to Hostetter, sunlight and high temperatures most jeopardize the quality of his beer, as they can interrupt fermentation.
With a growing knowledge of the brewing process, Hostetter says he enjoys having control over making his own beer, experimenting with different recipes and sharing the fruits of his labor with a select group of friends.
"I usually give away about a third of what I make," Hostetter said.
Federal regulations limit a household's annual production to 100 gallons per of-age resident and 200 gallons total.
Hostetter produces anywhere from 30 to 50 12-oz. bottles per batch. The entire process costs anywhere from $35 to $50 total.
"Basically, I share it with whoever begs me the most, or is in the right place at the right time," Hostetter said.
A lot goes into brewing, and it depends on the different ingredients -- the grain, hops and yeast used, for example, all play roles in determining a beer's flavor, color and alcohol content.
The type of grain used -- barley or wheat being the most common -- determines the color of the beer.
Because of space and cost restraints, Hostetter starts with a "mini-mash."
"In a full mash, you soak barley in water and heat it, which converts complex sugars into simple sugars," he said.
Using mini-mash allows Hostetter to skip this step.
Online homebrew companies sell these ingredients, and Hostetter said he picks out the components based specifically on the kind of beer he wants to make.
"It's not like you can just walk into Harris Teeter and ask for six ounces of hops," he said. "Chances are you'd just get a funny look."
In the boiling stage of the process, the mini-mash is boiled in water, producing a substance called "sweet wort."
Then, Hostetter adds hops to the boil in different increments, converting the sweet wort into bitter wort. At this point, he can also add other ingredients to alter the flavor.
"For example, I'm using honey in my next batch," he said.
After boiling for one to two hours, Hostetter must cool the bitter wort as quickly as possible.
"I just fill up my bathtub with ice and throw the pot in there, and get it cool pretty quickly," he said.
When the temperature gets down to 80 degrees, Hostetter adds yeast, which consumes the sugars in the bitter wort producing alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Different yeasts take different amounts of time to ferment, and after "Brew Day," Hostetter must wait patiently until the yeast finishes off before "Bottling Day."
"I don't know a brewer who didn't start off at home," South Street master brewer Taylor Smack said.
Located just off the Downtown Mall, South Street Brewery produces about 24 different kinds of beer, according to Smack. Its most popular brew is called "Satan's Pony," and several of Smack's recipes have won recognition at national contests.
"We brew twice a week on average, and brewing takes around seven to eight hours," he said.
South Street is a "brew-pub," a kind of restaurant that gained initial popularity, along with microbrews, in the 1980s on the West Coast.
"Microbrews only make up about three to four percent of the total beer market," said Smack. "But I can remember a time when you went to the grocery store and all you could buy was Coors, Miller or Bud. It's much different now."
Smack said he makes South Street's beers in 300- and 600-gallon batches.
"And we're running out of beer all the time," he added.
Smack said there are no current plans to pursue distribution outside the pub itself, however. For Smack, this decision is a matter of profitability.
"Brew-pubs have the highest profit margins," he said. "We can make a pint for 70 cents and sell it for $3.75."
Smack's estimate took account of the rented space, materials, equipment upkeep and his own salary.
He also mentioned the so-called "three-tier system" as a legal structure prohibitive to distribution. Brewers looking to sell even their own beers to restaurants or stores must go through beverage distributors first. Distributors mark up the beer before selling it to the third parties.
"Bigger breweries can make up the difference," Smack said.
But at present, Smack said he appreciates the freedom he has to experiment with different formulas on the scale of South Street Brewery. He said he obtains ingredients from around the world for South Street's brews.
"It's not like those old Sam Adams commercials where the guy goes out to Kent and smells the barley himself," Smack said.
Still, he emphasized regional differences in grains, hops and yeasts, taking advantage of these variations to improve his final products.
"If I'm making Belgian beer, I'll get grain from Belgium," Smack said.
The back rooms at South Street Brewery overflow with grain from around the world. South Street goes through about 40,000 pounds of barley annually, according to Smack.
Some of Smack's experiments have historical origins.
"I go up to Carter Mountain and pick pumpkins, spend a day mashing them up, and throw them into my Pumpkin Ale during this time of year," he said.
Smack added that this goes back to the roots of brewing in Virginia.
"Virginia is not a good place to grow wheat, and so the founding fathers would use whatever starches they could find in their beers," he said.
Starches are the source of the complex sugars which, when broken down, are consumed by yeast during fermentation.
"Jefferson commissioned an English brewer, and George Washington's field manuals had recipes for beer," Smack said.
South Street's location itself has historical importance in Charlottesville. It was originally the H & H Hay and Grain building, and the original painted sign is still intact inside the present brewery.
For Smack, brewing is a craft or trade, the knowledge of which passes along through generations.
"It's like blacksmithing," he said. "Beer and brewing has been around for 5,000 years. You might laugh, but it is really a cornerstone of civilization."
As master brewer, Smack multitasks as mechanic, engineer, chemist and biologist.
He said he appreciates the differences in each batch of beer he produces.
"One of the things I love most about this job is that it's constant problem solving," he said.
While Smack enjoys the freedoms afforded by the relatively small scale of South Street Brewery, master brewer Mark Thompson of Starr Hill Brewery takes a different approach.
"I'm aiming to dethrone Bud," Thompson said.
Starr Hill recently moved its operations to nearby Crozet, where it plans to begin bottling its four brews in the near future.
"We'll start cranking it up in about three months," Thompson said.
In the sleek interior of the old ConAgra factory, Thompson can control the brewing process from control panels around the floor.
"We are finishing an expansion of epic proportions," Thompson said.
Although Thompson aspires to national distribution and recognition, he has plans on the local scale as well.
Starr Hill will open a tasting room on the floor of its brewery, and Thompson said he envisions rooftop drinking patios with panoramic views against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
"We think our brewery can dovetail into the agro-tourism industry in Virginia," he said, referring to the many vineyard and wine tours in the Albemarle County area. "Why not a beer tour?"
Starr Hill is also working on plans to connect the new facility to its traditional Main Street location via rail or shuttle bus service. The railroad track behind the Crozet brewery extends into the Charlottesville Amtrak Station.
"People can come out here, have a beer and head back to Main Street for dinner," Thompson said. "Starr Hill [on Main Street] has always been the test kitchen for our beers. We'll maintain that connection."
At the brewery, Starr Hill can make its own yeast, carbonate its beers (rather than relying on just the carbon dioxide byproduct of fermentation) and produce a bottled product.
For Thompson, branding of Starr Hill's beers is one of the most important aspects of his job.
"We aim to bring the gift of great beer to the public," he said.
Thompson and his assistant, Matt Reich, base their decisions on the basis of this brand-driving maxim, including the decision to move Starr Hill to Crozet and to experiment with new beers.
"Matt convinced me to develop a lager," Thompson said. "Americans tend to prefer ales, and I fought him on it for years, but we eventually decided to do it."
The result, a lager called "Mojo," has been one of Starr Hill's most recent hits, according to Thompson.
"I am more involved in the brand," he said. "That's my job. And Mojo was a great success for the brand."
Like South Street Brewery, Starr Hill's Crozet brewery occupies space with historical significance. Members of the Crozet community have worked there under different companies for the past four generations.
"When we started in 1999, we sold our amber ale draft only," Thompson said.
Things have changed for Thompson and Starr Hill in six years, and in response to Thompson's ideas for the future of the brand, Hostetter had only one thing to say.
"It makes me want to brew this weekend."
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