Beer aficionados swap home tips, techniques at State College Homebrew Club. How to join

Walk into Axemann Brewery in Bellefonte on the last Tuesday of the month and you’ll find a group of a dozen or so people dedicated to the art of home brewing, as the State College Homebrew Club meets to swap beers and education.

Philip Jensen, vice president and a founding member of the club, and who’s been brewing beer at home since the mid-1980s, said the organization got its start on a very casual basis about 15 years ago, with irregular, backyard meetings. Today, the State College Homebrew Club is much more organized, with a growing focus on education and an annual home-brewing competition.

“It’s nice to be able to share home brews, talk about the home brews,” Jensen said. “Everybody brews a little differently, so it’s a good chance to learn in person rather than just (via) books and the internet.”

Each meeting features a beer style of the month. Home brewers bring in beers of the same style for tastings and discussion. Meetings also now feature an educational component wherein the group discusses brewing techniques or related topics, such as July’s topic of choice — brewing software. However, it’s not just accomplished home brewers that participate in meetings. Beer aficionados of all skill levels are welcomed, even those who don’t want to take on the challenge of home brewing on their own — though Jensen finds a lot to love about the process and encourages anyone interested in home brewing to attend an upcoming meeting.

“I like to actually physically brew probably more than I like to drink. I always say my capacity to brew far exceeds my ability to drink,” he laughed. “I can brew the perfect beer for me, or try to.”

While the hobby does come with a learning curve, Jensen noted it can be as difficult and costly or as easy and budget-friendly as someone wants.

“There are all kinds of companies that like to sell all kinds of toys to home brewers, so it can get expensive, but it doesn’t have to be,” he said. “When I started out, I had a glass carboy that I found in an attic and I had a pot on the stove — not even a huge pot. I did partial boils. I would buy malt extract and some grains and boil three gallons’ worth, add it to two gallons of cold water, and that’s what I would do. That was really cheap.”

Depending on the style of beer, the brewing process can take under a week, but Jensen estimated the average time from initial brewing to drinking is about a month. No matter what someone’s time frame, budget or skill level, though, he said the best way to get started with home brewing is to get involved with an organization like the State College Homebrew Club. There, he said, many other members are willing to allow a newcomer to the hobby to watch their process and learn.

The State College Homebrew Club’s annual competition — christened the Pennsylvania Homebrew Open Competition — is the club’s primary source of funds and attracts as many as 150 home brewers from not just around the region, but the entire country, who ship their home brews to Centre County for careful tasting by a panel of judges. Jensen acts as one of the competition’s judges, a position he doesn’t take lightly.

“As a judge, you’re supposed to divorce yourself from, ‘I don’t like the style. I don’t like those hops.’ There are set criteria for all the beer styles and it’s like judging dogs: How well does a beer conform to the standard?” he explained. Jensen and his fellow competition judges have all passed through the Beer Judge Certification Program, which requires multiple rounds of testing in order to achieve certification. The 2023 competition will take place early next year.

Those interested in the State College Homebrew Club are invited to simply show up to a meeting at Axemann Brewery, the last Tuesday of the month, at 6:30 p.m. The first two meetings are free for non-members to attend. More information can be found at www.statecollegehomebrewclub.com.