Baton Rouge gets serious about home brewing

By day, Tom Daigrepont is a computer consultant, but after hours, he is part of a jovial beer-making brotherhood, a widespread group that takes its craft seriously. “You get the science down, and you can make some beer,” he says. A couple of times a month, Daigrepont starts crafting a new brew, drawing from the raw materials—like 600 lbs. of grain—squirreled away in an extra bedroom in his house. He starts by boiling the grain with water, removing it, then adding malt extract and hops. Watching both the temperature of the liquid and the ambient temperature carefully, he adds yeast to trigger the first round of fermentation. Tiny microorganisms will start to devour the liquid’s natural sugars and leave behind two important by-products: alcohol and carbon dioxide. After a couple of weeks, a secondary fermentation and the addition of sugar, Daigrepont bottles his wares and stows them away for a few more weeks. Four refrigerators in his garage help with the first round of fermentation and store his rich supply of finished product: beer. Find out more about the local home brewing scene and get other foodie news in 225 Dine here.