Raising a glass to Boston brewers

The art of home-brewing beer gives some restaurants in the Boston area a unique but costly competitive advantage and offers customers a variety of alternatives to the traditional brand-name beers.

Located in Harvard Square, John Harvard’s BrewHouse brews and exclusively serves custom-made beer. Its current brews include Raspberry Red Ale, Nut Brown Ale, Pilgrim’s Porter and John Harvard’s Pale Ale, along with rotating seasonal offerings such as Mid-Winter’s Strong Ale.

‘Brewing is the creation of an alcoholic beverage from barley and malt,’ said Geoff DiBisschop, a brewer at John Harvard’s, explaining the process of brewing beer. ‘It requires getting an extract and adding malt and hops.’

The brewing process, which takes place on John Harvard’s premises, begins with malted barley, a cereal grain that is crushed and mixed with water to give beer its color and body, according to the chain’s website.

Next, the liquid is drained from the mixture of barley and water and boiled. Hops, flowers that give beer its aroma and bitterness, are then added. The liquid is fermented for three to four days, and yeast is added to make the liquid produce alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The yeast eventually settles out of the mixture as it is fermented again for one to two weeks. Sometimes more hops are added at this stage. Finally, the beer is cooled, filtered through cellulose sheets and served.

Because of the amount of equipment required for production, DiBisschop said home-brewing can be an expensive process for businesses that choose it.

‘The initial output for equipment used for brewing can cost hundreds-of thousands of dollars, and [the equipment] also takes up several square feet of space,’ he said. ‘The profit margin is a lot better, though, if you sell the beer you brew.’

Also, hiring additional employees may be necessary for some restaurants and bars that brew their own beer, he said. However, DiBisschop said brewing at John Harvard’s involves only one to three workers, in comparison with large breweries that may employ hundreds or thousands of workers across the nation.

Boston Beer Works, located on Brookline Avenue. near Fenway Park, is another local bar that brews its own stocks. The Works relies on its local appeal to attract customers to its beer, using names such as Back Bay IPA, Fenway Pale Ale and Beantown Nut Brown Ale.

Two Boston University students, Jill Weiner and Mary B. Russell, said they dine at Boston Beer Works about once a month, mostly because of the locally brewed beer available at the restaurant.

‘I think that local breweries are neat,’ said Weiner, a College of Arts and Sciences senior.

Russell, also a CAS senior, said although the price of home-brewed beer is comparable to brand-name beer, as a consumer she prefers beer that is locally brewed.

‘I think something should be produced where you get it,’ she said. ‘Wouldn’t you rather drink beer that was brewed right down the street than beer that was brewed somewhere else?’

Elaine Bissonho, a bartender at Boston Beer Works, said the bar has several loyal customers. She said she believes many customers choose Boston Beer Works because it serves unique beers that aren’t available at most establishments.

‘There are certain beers that they can’t buy outside of here; some people just really enjoy the beer that is served here,’ she said.

Blueberry Beer, a beer exclusive to Boston Beer Works, is one of the most popular brews, she said.

Despite the wide variety of home-brewed beer that local breweries are able to provide their customers, larger breweries do not feel threatened by their competition, according to Aimee Valdez, a spokeswoman for Coors Brewing Company, the third-largest brewer in the United States.

Coors Brewing Company’s website also named one of its products, Coors Light, as the nation’s fourth best-selling beer.

Valdez said Coors’ sales are not affected by independent brewers. Large companies like Coors focus primarily on competing with other large, brand-name beers, she said.

‘We strive to continually brew beers that consumers will view as the best versus the competition,’ Valdez said. ‘We also have extensive sales, marketing and advertising programs that are designed to appeal to legal-age beer drinkers.’