"Brew Good, Do Good"
Pacing across the small kitchenette, tutor Eric Bersin manages to stop the large pot from boiling over. With the help of some students, he pours two bowls full of yeast into the black, bacon-scented tea. “In 45 minutes, we will start adding the hops for this batch,” he says, swiftly stirring all the ingredients together using a large wooden spoon. The process is reminiscent of the Genie in the movie “Aladdin,” who has the cosmic power to grant any wishes to his master. Just as the Genie hides in his magic lamp to brew all sorts of magic potions for Aladdin, tutors and undergrads gather in this underground kitchenette to make all possible kinds of home-brewed beers. They are the Genies of the Kirkland Brew Club.
Located in Kirkland House’s N entryway (also known as the Annex), the Kirkland Brew Club has met weekly since the spring of 2009, when it was born from a competition between Kirkland and Winthrop to see which house could brew a better batch of beer before commencement. Now The Brew Club is a long-standing community seeking to not only “brew good,” but also “do good.”
Originally founded and led by Kirkland tutor Luke Walczewski, the Brew Club is now managed by two Kirkland resident tutors, Eric Bersin and Stefan Rajkovic, who were both House residents back in the 2010s. Rajkovic brewed his first beers during his senior year in 2017 with Walczewski. Now, as a tutor, he leads a group of enthusiastic undergraduates through the same experience he had.
During every Sunday meeting, the tutors and students boil bread grains to create tea and add some yeast to produce the fermentation as well as hops to offset the sweetness of the grain. After the two-hour boiling process, the boiled solution is left to ferment for two weeks. When it’s ready, members bottle it in recycled containers.
The whole process takes about three to four weeks, with plenty of wait time in between. “During the waiting time, we make a new beer,” Bersin explains. “We would start with the bread tea-making process. Then the following week, we either start a new batch of beer, transfer our previous batch to kegs, or bottle the batch that is ready for usage.”
To expedite the brewing process, the club uses a fridge with a temperature controller to optimize the yeast fermentation, a chiller to quickly cool down the boiling beer, a kegerator to hold beer kegs, and various pieces of filtration equipment. With their new equipment, members can now brew not only beer, but also hard seltzers, ginger beer,holiday cheer ale, ciders, kombucha, and any other creative recipes they self-craft or propose to the club.
This semester, the club meets from 3 p.m. till late afternoon every Sunday in the Annex basement. “We typically brew most every weekend, so throughout the semester, we make eight to 10 or so beers,” Rajkovic says. “We do some combinations of vaguely seasonal beer choices, but also cater to what our regular attendees are interested in.”
Scrolling through the 31-page recipes, the tutors show me the 2.0 version of Holiday Cheer Ale, a beer Walczewski created before leaving his resident tutor post and linked in FM’s 2014 coverage of the club. The changes are, as they described, quite “dramatic,” from the elimination of additional ingredients like honey and orange peel to changes in choices of grains, hops, and yeast strains. They also showed many other recipes in their semester brewing line-ups, such as That Good Rye IPA, which they just started last week, Scottish Ale, and dry-hopped Citra Saison. Each recipe is laid out with the creator's name, a list of the ingredients, recent brew dates, and tasting notes from the brewer.
When asked about his reasons for spearheading Brew Club, Bersin explains: “I had no real understanding of what went into beers and how it was made. Brewing beer brings a lot of insights into this type of beverage and allows you to put some meaning behind it.”
The club maintains a mailing list with past alumni, who occasionally assist with the brewing process when they are in the area. The Brew Club opens its door to both Kirklanders and beer enthusiasts in other houses. “We always welcome more people. Not only will you get the appreciation of the beer-making process, but it is also fun, easy, and way cheaper than buying the drinks at a store.” Bersin says.
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Try your hand at a 2010 recipe from Brew Club that John Thornton Kirkland himself would be proud of.
JTK Stout
Batch 7 of fall 2010:
5 gallon yield, improvised Stout recipe
Ingredients:
GRAINS:
1 lb Carastan Malt
1/2 lb Pale Chocolate
1/4 lb Chocolate Wheat
1/4 lb Belgian Debittered Black Malt
1/4 lb Belgian Biscuit
1/4 lb Flaked Oats
MALT EXTRACT:
6.6 lb Golden Light liquid
HOPS:
Bitterness (60): 5 AAU (1.25 oz) Fuggle
Flavor: none
Aroma (5): 2 AAU (.5 oz) Fuggle
YEAST STRAIN:
Danstar Nottingham- double pitched
OTHER INGREDIENTS:
none
Process:
Bring 2 gallons of water (we use a 4-gallon pot) to approximately 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Steep the grains. After 30 minutes, remove, and sparge.
Bring the wort to a boil, and then add the malt extract.
Bring the wort back to a boil and set a timer for 60 minutes. At the beginning of the boil, add the bitterness hops. With 5 minutes remaining in the boil, add the aroma hops.
When the boil has finished, put the pot in an ice bath to bring it down to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the wort has cooled, put it in your primary fermentation bucket, add water to 5 gallons, and add the yeast!
After 1 week in primary fermentation, siphon to secondary. After 1 week in secondary fermentation, bottle. Wait about a month, then drink and enjoy!