The Iron Brewer

By Michael James Werner
Photos by Katie Campbell
(Republished from Etude, the journal of literary nonfiction, with permission from the author.)

Mitch Scheele can taste 100 distinct flavors in beer. A beer that the average beer guzzling consumer may describe as dark and strong, Mitch will tell you has a complex maltiness with subtle caramel notes. What you call smooth, Mitch will tell you is medium-bodied and lacking in astringency. A light, crisp cream ale Mitch will tell you has a well-attenuated flavor with faintly fruity esters and a somewhat dry finish. An Imperial IPA (India Pale Ale), he will say, has a high hop bitterness balanced by a malt backbone and a toasty flavor. And a stout, oh a good stout will always have a moderate roasted flavor, a dry, coffee-like flavor and an unsweetened chocolate character that lasts into the finish. And you just thought it tasted good.

Mitch, a wiry guy with a straggle of stringy gray locks and a retiring personality, is one of a growing number of beer aficionados. Here in Oregon, beer connoisseurs are legion. While beer is seen by many as a coarser drink than wine, drunk by coarser people, beer connoisseurs are raising the appreciation of this frothy beverage to a high art. Go to a beer tasting with a group of beer lovers and you’re likely to hear talk of palates, mouthfeel, body and aroma. But don’t call them snobs. Mitch and his beer-sipping companions prefer the term “beer geeks.”

Mitch and his friends share an affinity for good beer that goes so deep that he and the others brew their own. Brewing has a long history in Oregon. With nearly 80 breweries today, Oregon has more per capita than any other state. The state produces 10 percent of the country’s craft beer, making it the nation’s second largest producer behind Washington. While Milwaukee and Munich are the cities most associated with beer brewing, Portland has more breweries per capita than any city in the world.

It is 10 a.m. on an overcast Saturday in June, and Mitch and nine other men are gathered under three metal-framed party tents in a backyard in Eugene, Oregon. The men stand around foldable rectangular tables atop which sit large silver pots, foot-long silver spoons and thermometers. Propane tanks and burners lie at their feet. The men, most of whom are middle-aged and dressed in T-shirts and shorts, look like weekend campers preparing for a cookout. Each has a glass of beer in hand. In spite of the hour, it feels normal to be indulging.

This is Iron Brewer, a competition put on by a group of Eugene-area homebrewers that is loosely based on the TV program “Iron Chef,” in which chefs are given one hour to improvise and cook a meal featuring a secret ingredient. Iron Brewer, a competition based more on drink-and-socialize than fame-and-riches, requires two-man teams of brewers to formulate a recipe, declare the style of beer being attempted, and then, within five hours, brew a beer using the same kit of secret ingredients. (The results are sampled and judged three months later, after fermentation.) Among the standard ingredients from which the four teams can choose are: fifteen pounds of malted barley; four varieties of specialty grains, which add color and flavor; sugar, which gives beer its fizz; and four different varieties of hops. The teams must also incorporate at least one unusual ingredient: a special variety of hops or a pound of raisins or flaked oats.

After the ingredients are revealed, the teammates huddle together to confer. Mitch and his partner, Curt Hausam, a fleshy guy with a dry sense of humor and a comedian’s natural sense of timing, walk to the edge of the yard, away from the other groups and talk in hushed conspiratorial tones. Last year the Baltic Porter they made tied for second place. This year the pair is sanguine. “It’s in the bag,” Curt says.

The Iron Brewer concept was started by a homebrewing club in Texas about five years ago and has since spread across the country. The Eugene-based Cascade Brewers Society, of which these guys are a part, tried it for the first time last year, and since then several other clubs in Pacific Northwest have adopted the idea. Homebrewing clubs have a higher profile these days, but they’ve been around for more than three decades, a consequence of beer aficionados searching for alternatives to the standard brews being produced by the big companies. One of the first homebrewing clubs was established in Woodland Hills, Calif. in 1974. It wasn’t until 1978 that home brewing was legalized by Jimmy Carter. Since then, the clubs have multiplied from a handful in the late 1970s to several hundred today. Oregon also has a long history of homebrewing. Some members of the Cascade Brewer’s Society have been brewing their own beer since before it was legal.

Not counting the start-up costs (less than $100), making your own beer can cost less than half of what you would pay in a store for premium commercial brands or microbrews. For many of these self-professed “beer geeks,” though, homebrewing is a labor of love. Not surprisingly homebrewers are a passionate bunch, who go to great lengths to make distinct, one-of-a-kind beers, none more so than astronaut-cum-homebrewer Bill Readdy, who blasted into space in 1992 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery carrying a bag hops. Another beer geek on the flight arranged for a beer to be brewed with the hops. All the mission’s crewmembers were on hand for a special tapping.

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