Ten years ago, Kraig Knudsen’s sister-in-law gave him a home beer-brewing kit as a gift. He never used it.
It’s not that he didn’t want to, but like many people, he’s impatient. Of course, Knudsen, a tobacco category manager for Circle K’s Heartland Division in Lisle, Ill., loves craft beer; that’s what inspired the gift. But what triggered his newfound passion of actually brewing the beer was a serendipitous trip to a brewery in Douglas, Mich.
Q: Why do you brew beer at a brewery vs. at home?
A: Most people do it in their kitchen or their basement, but I rent space at the brewery because it’s a lot easier. Their equipment is designed for it. To my knowledge, Saugatuck Brewing Co. is the only brewery in Michigan with a license to allow nonemployees to brew.
Q: How does it work?
A: You partner with a brew master, so you have someone who knows what he’s doing. In our case, family members and I work with Dexter Gauntlett. The brewery makes and packages their own beer, of course. They supply a half-dozen states, but with this brew-on-premise program, they have four stations to accommodate people, and it takes about six hours to actually brew your beer. That includes getting the ingredients together, stirring, boiling the mash—the whole process. At the end, you bring your temperature to 230 degrees and you start your timers.
Q: What kinds of beers do you like to make?
A: I’ve done a red rye, one of my favorite types. It’s a session brew. Have you ever heard of [Founders Brewing Co.’s] All Day IPA? Well, let me start this way: A regular India pale ale, or IPA, tends to have a higher alcohol content than typical beer, anywhere from 6.5% to 9% alcohol. Ours came in at 5%, so a little stronger than a Budweiser, but not as strong as a regular IPA, so you won’t drink it and feel like lying down afterward.
This year, we’re going back and forth with a hefeweizen, which is a German-style wheat beer, or a traditional IPA. About three weeks before we go up, we have a conversation with Dexter about the style of beer we want and our recipe. I use a third ingredient that I won’t mention publicly, but he has to make sure to order what we need because there’s different types of hops and yeast strains.
Q: What happens after you brew your batch?
A: My wife and I go back about six weeks later to bottle it. We pump it from the barrel into the bottles and seal them with CO2. I like to make labels with cutesy family themes. With my last one, my son graduated from law school, so I had a photo of him on the label and called it Juris Doctorate. It’s an “educated brew.” With my first batch, we had just gotten a new dog, a golden retriever, so we called that beer Golden Hoppertunity and put a picture of her on the label.
Q: Have you ever thought of actually selling it?
A: No. In fact, the printer who makes my labels asked me for a few bottles so he could pitch it on his local cable show, and I said no. It’s a family thing. My son Tim and son-in-law Kevin Tonn have gotten involved. When your children are adults, it gets difficult to find time to just be together and enjoy each other. For us, this is that time.
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