FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 31, 2019 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 53
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Brewstoria invites beer-enthusiasts to learn about homebrewing
BY ANGELICA ACEVEDO
Brewstoria members have a saying they
like to tell each other, according to member
Robert Shalhoub: “You can give a man
a beer and he can waste an hour, but you
can teach a man to brew and he can waste
a lifetime.”
But aft er Shalhoub walked us through
what homebrewing is like, it hardly seems
like a waste.
Th e meticulous, fi ve-hour process
begins with grilling barley to “open up”
the grain and ends with adding hops —
green, cone-shaped fl owers — to seven or
so gallons of sweet liquor at the very end
to add some bitterness and make it the
balanced drink we know as beer.
“We make it in our own kitchens, basements
and backyards,” Shalhoub said.
Brewstoria — the only homebrew club
in Queens — has been around for 10
years.
Th e club has about 50 members and is
meant to bring beer-enthusiasts together
to learn useful techniques for craft -
ing their own beers, hear from each other
and other professional brewers about different
aspects of the industry and, perhaps
more importantly, taste each other’s
beer.
“We all have a good time and have lots
of laughs,” said Shalhoub, who has been a
member of Brewstoria for fi ve years.
Th e club got a chance to pour their
own assortment of beers at the Queens
Beer Festival in Long Island City, which
proved to be a great success. So much so,
that the 25 gallons of homebrews that they
brought for the fest — an amount that was
meant to last from Saturday to Sunday —
ran out way before then.
“With an hour left on Saturday we were
out of beer,” he said. “People were so excited
because all the other breweries were
off ering two beers and most of them were
an IPA or a light beer, but we ran the
gamut — we had a stout, we had an oatmeal
brown, we had a Gose.”
Th e club is looking forward for next
year’s Beer Fest, which Shalhoub said
they’ll be more prepared for. Th ey’re
also planning on hosting their second
Brewstoria Queens competition next year,
since their fi rst one two years ago had
about 150 entries from all over the country
. Until then, Brewstoria will be meeting
on the fi rst Wednesday of every month
at the Rockaway Brewery in Long Island
City.
Shalhoub, a resident of Whitestone,
said that the local breweries have always
supported their club. One former member,
Chris Cuzme, even went on to open
his own brewery called Fift h Hammer
Brewing Company.
“Th e breweries in Queens are very good
to us,” Shalhoub said. “Th ey know us.
Th ey know we’re a homebrew club and
they know that we’re good customers,
obviously, because we love beer.”
Th e 51-year-old believes that Long
Island City is the place to be when it
comes to beer.
“I don’t think you can go wrong in Long
Island City,” he said. “We’re very spoiled
with quality local breweries.”
Photo credit: Brewstoria
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