Barrels are used to add flavor to beer during the aging process.[/caption]

Backyard Home Brewers and Education Center is helping the Greater Houston area’s growing number of craft beer consumers become creators.

“When you open up a brewery, you start somewhere,” Mathews said. “You started in your kitchen at one point, and you kind of evolved and ended up with a brewery just like we did.”

Mathews opened Backyard Home Brewers four years ago in Old Town Humble with his friend John Denman, who now co-hosts “Drink of Ages,” a local radio show about craft beer.

Denman and Mathews created Backyard Home Brewers while on
a family vacation near Lake Livingston. The duo mapped out their business plan over a campfire, he said.

Mathews, a self-described beer nerd who follows breweries the way sports fanatics follow their favorite team, wanted to help people discover his passion for beer. That drive fuels how he treats his customers, he said.

“When they come in, two things: Let’s treat everybody like they are our friends from the past, and let’s guide them so they can make better beer,” Mathews said.

Mathews guides his customers with weekend brewing classes that discuss topics such as water chemistry, yeast propagation and opening a brewery.

Beer-making kits range from $80-$180 and include a primary fermenter, a bottling bucket and siphon as well as a hydrometer and thermometer. Backyard Home Brewers also carries spices, malts, grains and hops as well as wine-making kits.

The brewing process is attainable for the average consumer, Mathews said.

Beer takes 3.5 hours to brew on a kitchen stove. It is then fermented—the process of yeast converting sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide—for about a week, and then aged for another two weeks before it is ready to drink.

What makes brewing special is its ability to bring people together, he said.

“I’m standing in my shop and I look outside, and it’s all different types of people from all different walks [of life],” Mathews said. “Some are engineers, some are scientists, some work on cars and some are insurance guys. And it’s crazy because in a normal setting maybe these guys would never hang out, but when they’re here they’re best friends.”

Backyard Home Brewers and Education Center

802 1st St. E., Humble
832-644-8082
www.backyardhomebrewers.com
Hours: Tue.-Sat. noon-6 p.m., Sun. noon-4 p.m., closed Mondays