Home brewed success

A pair of local homebrewers and childhood friends’ decision to blend two Flemish Red beer batches concocted four years apart led them to high praise from tasting judges in the 29th annual American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition.
Jon Berkland and John Phelan, who grew up together in the same Morgan Hill neighborhood and graduated in the same Live Oak High School Class of 1998, placed second among 240 entries in the Sour Ale category at the prestigious competition on June 15. The event included 8,618 entries from 3,530 homebrewers located in all 50 states and 13 other countries in various beer style categories.
“It was pretty amazing for us,” said Berkland, 37, who works for a wholesaler of beer, wine and spirits. “I really enjoy brewing sour ales.”
For their award-winning sour ale, Berkland and Phelan, a 37-year-old paramedic by profession, blended one-third of a four-year-old batch with two-thirds of a two-year-old Flemish Red.
“By itself it was nice, but we thought it would probably be better as a blended component,” explained Berkland, who began tasting different samples of both until he and Phelan found just the right proportions of each.
“The older batch was one of the first batches we brewed together,” added Phelan, who was first exposed to the beer-making process by his father who had his own home brew shop that “I worked at and I hated it.”
However, Phelan’s attitude toward homebrew changed as he grew into his 20s and he began to experiment with making his own. He fell in love with the scientific nature of the brewing process.
Sour taste of science
While other beers sit for about three weeks or more before they can be tasted, sour ales are “a labor of love,” Berkland said, since those kegs can’t be tapped for at least seven months. Sour ales use ingredients such as beer yeasts called Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces as well as lactic acid bacteria known as Lactobacillus and Pediococcus.
“When you’re done brewing a sour ale, you’re like, ‘A year from now we will be drinking this,” Berkland said.
But it was well worth the wait for these homebrewers who entered the national competition for three straight years before achieving the second-place honor. This year, they first entered one of 12 regional competitions and placed first in Sour Ale with their Flemish Red and second in the Scottish/Irish Ale category with a Wee Heavy beer. In 2016, they qualified one homebrew for nationals but did not place.
The top three entries at each site in each of the 33 brew-style categories advance to the final round of the competition, which is held every year at Homebrew Con in Minneapolis. This year, the final round of tasting took place June 15 and beers were evaluated by the judges.
After sending three more bottles to Minneapolis for the nationals, they had to wait once again. While they did not attend, Berkland watched the live-stream video from his hotel room in Monterey where he was vacationing with his wife and two children. He even called in for a late checkout while the judges read off the winners.
“I was in shock. I thought, ‘This isn’t real,’” Berkland said. “It was kind of a pinch-me moment. I couldn’t believe it.”
He immediately called his partner-in-brew Phelan to share the news.
“I thought he was messing around with me,” said Phelan, who knew the Sour Ale had “some potential” when they tasted just the right mixture. “There are a lot of good homebrewers out there and people we really look up to who told me they never even made it to the nationals.”
It was a momentous occasion for the long-time friends who joined brew forces five years ago.
“They beat out many outstanding competitors at the National Homebrew Competition, the world’s largest international beer competition, and that’s something to be extremely proud of,” said Gary Glass, director of the American Homebrewers Association.
The AHA National Homebrew Competition recognizes the most outstanding homemade beer, mead and cider being produced by homebrewers worldwide. Over its 39-year history, the National Homebrew Competition has evaluated 134,835 brews. The first competition, held in 1979 in Boulder, Colo., judged 34 beers.
Keep on brewin’
On this particular Thursday in early August, Phelan and Berkland were making an Imperial Stout, which calls for 30 pounds of grain for a five-gallon batch, compared to a Pale Ale that uses 12 to 15 pounds. The brew buddies—who have formed their own homebrew club called “Barrel Thieves”—find time to make three batches of between five to 10 gallons of homebrew per month out of their garages.
“Jon (Berkland) came around and took it to the next level and we are able to do what I wouldn’t be able to do on my own,” said Phelan, who started entering their homebrews into smaller competitions about three years ago.
Through those experiences, they received “valuable feedback” from judges and used that in crafting their next batch of beer.
They invite friends to hang out during the five- to six-hour process and sample previous batches while doing so. Sometimes, it is a stress reliever from a long work day and other times it is a fun social event. They both have kegerators at their houses so they always have something on tap.
“At the moment, it’s a pretty rad hobby to have, but every homebrewer has that dream to own his own brewery one day,” said Berkland, who enjoyed having their homebrew poured at Trail Dust BBQ last year during the Brew Crawl.”That was great.”
“I never would’ve thought people would stand in line to taste our beers,” added Phelan, who is looking forward to an upcoming pour event in October at The Running Shop and Hops in Morgan Hill. “People are taking more pride in local product.”