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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 1987)
Arts & Entertainment _ ^ **^^^^^^^Pau^ondertage/Dail^ebraskan Rich Chapin brews his own. Home brewers look for more in beer than most drinkers I By Mick Dyer Staff Reporter___\ Right now nty apartment is filled with a rich, molasses like aroma My roommate plays the banjo in the other room and I step hack t o admire another five gallon hatch of brown liquid. I’m already anticipting the bubbling and churning of the concoction that will lull me to sleep every night for the next week or so. In a small notebook I mark a hydrometer reading, specific weight and several variables Uiai will influ I ence the personality my creation j develops. From the refrigerator 1 remove a hot ib— t he last of its general ton — pour it into a glass and enjoy the con tents Home brewing at its finest. It s a ritual with me. Kvery autumn, as the days get shorter and colder ami the nights grow longer, 1 get an urge to brew my own beer Autumnjust wouldn’t he the same otherwise. For otheis, however, home brewing is a year-round activity. One. Rich Chapin itas been a home brewer, or /.vmurgist for eight years. His interest in | ihe hobby began in college. "I wasn’t that enamored with the | American product, so 1 drank imports I instead,” he said. "I saw an advertise ment lor the American Homobrewers j Association on cable and contacted them.” Soon after, he became a home brewer. Chapin said home brewers want mere from a beer than i lie average beer drinker. "1 don’t think there is such a thing as a bad beer, but there are beers of better quality,” he said. ‘T want to make a beer to suit me,” Beer making is much more complex than most people think. Chapin said, lie said t he average person could prob ably list the differences between the types of wines, hut could not tell the differences between a stout and a lager. ‘The variety is staggering,” he said. Many variables are involved in beer making. One must selec* the type or types of malt and hops and determine their proportions. “When you home brew, you learn about brewing and learn to appreciate brew masters and the art of brewing,” Chapin said. Popular beer commercials can be annoying, sometimes, to serious zymurgists. s Beer ads don’t generally talk alnmt quality; they just aim at trends," Chapin said. Quality is important to Chapin. He has been the superintendent of beer judging at the Nebraska State Fair lor four years. He doesn’t do any of the judging himself because, he said, some people might think the results would be biased. The two requisites he looks for in judges are that they are know! edgeable about a variety of beers and that they brew at home or drink a lot of home brew. The beer judging places less empha sis on competition and more emphasis on showing quality beers, he said. ‘‘If you're entering to win a ribbon, I really don’t want your entry," he said, •’it you like your beer, fine, that's all that is really important, don't look for a tropl’v' Chapin stressed that the beerjudg ing at the State Fair is primarily a learning experience and an opportun ity for feedback. ’Tin still learning myself.’’ he said ( hapin said the biggest tiling people can do to improve then home brewing is to join a ciuh. A club provides in opportunity to > ample other peoples beers and share your own, as well as good company, he said. "1 probably have learned more from the home brewing club than from anyone else,” he said. Many people who placed well at the fair were involved with the dub, Chapin said. “That speaks well for itself," he said. John Lund of Linc oln won this year's best of show award. He began home brewing eight years ago when his wife gave him a brewing kit for Christinas “It’s a great hobby,” Lund said The* growth of interest in home brew ing over the past few years i* evident in the growth in membership in home brewing clubs, Chapin said •Tin looking forward to .1 enais sauce of brewing,” he said. Anyone interested in becoming involved with the Klatlanb bn wing Cartel, lh< local home brewers club, should contact Chapin. Beer making equipment and supplies are available in Lincoln, listed in the yellow p; 't*s under winemaking equipment ad supplies. Tliei ■ is no legal brewing ... in Nebraska Musician’s bluegrass inviting but too short By Charles Lieurance Senior Editor_ John Hartford sawed and picked his way through an inviting, cheer ful and very short performance at the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra’s September Pops concert Friday night in Pershing Auditorium. Concert Review A virtuoso bluegrass musician, Hartford is known for blending tra ditional American music, pop and, strangely, Laurie Anderson-style con ceptual inventiveness. Friday’s per formance was prime Hartford but was entirely too short consideing Hartford but was entirely too short considering Hartford’s large rep ertoire. Just when Hartford began to set the intimate mood that makes blue grass music magical, he was whisked off stage and the audience was treated to the competent, but far less rare and enchanting, music of the Lincoln Symphony. When Hart ford came back on stage to play with the symphony and local jazz bassist Rusty White, he played only a few songs, most of them traditional numbers. Hartford’s conceptual treat for the evening was a big piece of ply wood that was hooked into a micro phone and possibly into an effects pedal. As he danced on the plywood it made discernible musical tones, sometime percussive and other times otherworldly. "Gentle On My Mind," Hartford’s best-known song, was given a sparse and moving treatment that put all of the overproduced, schlocky covers of the song to shame. With just a bar\jo and an acoustic guitar, the full lyrical beauty of the song con quered any cynicism that might have surfaced aboui its past mis treatment. The crowd at the September Pops concert was older, and despite the rough time Hartford had getting them to sing along to tunes like “Wabash Cannonball" everyone seemed to appreciate his obvious talent and charisma. rM OTK-1 DEVELOP THEIR LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL Applications arc being accepted for the following positions on l PC American Minority Council: PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT Applications art* available in the Campus Activities anti Programs (MTico. Room 200 City l niun. Room 300 Easi Campus 1 niun. and it the Culture ( enter. Deadline for return of applications is < >< u>ber 1 1 !’(' AMUR It \N MINORITY C OUNCIL
