LITTLE ROCK — RESOURCES
While it’s true that you can’t find much of what you need for brewing beer at the grocery store, the supplies and know-how for your first batch aren’t hard to find.
In addition to selling equipment and ingredients, the staff at home brewing stores can be a valuable source of advice and can help you find out about clubs in your area or other brewing-related events. Some stores around Arkansas are:
Fermentables & Homegrown Hobbies, (501) 758-6261, 3915 Crutcher St., North Little Rock, Fermentables.com
The Home Brewery, (479) 587-1440, 455 E. Township St., Fayetteville, thehomebrewery.com
Wine Makers Gallery at GrowFresh, (479) 648-8885 2600 S. Zero St., Suite C, Fort Smith, growfreshorganics.com
Home brewing clubs can be a great resource for beginning brewers. The Central Arkansas Fermenters are a club of home beer and wine makers whose activities include wine and beer tasting, group brewing days, beer competitions, and wine and beer dinners. Check the calendar at centralarkansasfermenters. com for meetings.
If you want to go a bit deeper into the hows and whys of the brewing process, or if you just want a wider variety of recipes to choose from, there are plenty of good books on the subject. A couple of good beginner references are How to Brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Beer Right the First Time by John J. Palmer and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (Third Edition) by Charlie Papazian. Both of these books offer a mix of technique, explanations of how and why the techniques work, and recipes for different styles of beer.
Food, Pages 38 on 11/28/2012