Business Spotlight: Beer-making made easy at Just Brew It

Rising demand for craft beers over the past decade or two has resulted in a resurgence of the age-old hobby of home brewing, Just Brew It owner Trevor Rotoli said.

"It follows with the craft beers scene that has been growing outrageously for the past 10 years," he said.

Rotoli, a home brewer and craft beer lover, saw an opportunity six and a half years ago to open his own home-brewing supply business in Carson City to capture local interest in craft beer making.

"I've home-brewed since 1999," he said. "I was working in construction, and when that dried up, I decided to start my own business."

Just Brew It is a retail home-brewing supply store located at 1214 N. Carson Street in Carson City. It carries all the supplies home brewers need to produce their own product, including beer-making starter kits, whole grains, cook pots, storage containers, and many other accessories.

Rotoli said because of the demand for and increased cost of craft beers by the bottle, people have rediscovered the value of home-brewing.

"You can replicate those craft beer recipes typically for less than a dollar a bottle, so it's cheaper than buying the craft beers a lot of the time," he said. "There's the work you put into it, but the cost you put into it is less than a dollar a bottle."

Although there is a process to the art of brew-making, Rotoli said, it isn't rocket science, either.

"It's real simple to do, a real easy process," he said. "It doesn't take years of brewing school to learn how to do it. You can take home a recipe and brew it that night following the instructions."

Just Brew It sells starter kits for the novice and experienced brewer alike, Rotoli said. But none of them are too complicated to learn and follow.

"The way starter kits are made, they are designed to make the process really simple and less complex," he said.

A basic starter kit includes fermentation gear, bottling and capping gear, and a cook pot, Rotoli said.

Stock pots or turkey fryers can work really well for cooking beer in, too, he said.

The home-brewing process requires imagination and patience, Rotoli said, but no particular skill.

Ingredients from a recipe are combined in the pot and cooked for about two hours, he said. The beer needs to cool before yeast is added.

Then the brew needs to sit and ferment for 7-10 days, Rotoli said.

Once that process is complete, the beer is transferred to bottles and capped.

These sit for about another week in order to build carbonation, Rotoli said, before the beer is ready to drink.

From start to finish, he said, the entire process takes around 2-3 weeks.

Rotoli said his business offers recipes of existing craft beers on the market for those who want to recreate a favorite.

But the real fun, he said, is in developing your own beer.

"When I started, there wasn't a lot of craft beer on the market, so it was more fun to make experimental recipes and come up with my own varieties," he said. "That's the neat thing about home brewing. There are so many different options that you can mix and match and creat your own recipes that nobody's ever done before."

Rotoli said he has produced numerous original creations, including raspberry hefeweizens and a very unique a banana split stout, which scored high at the annual Backwash Home Brew competition in Reno last year.

He's produced countless beer crosses, too.

"Anything I could ever imagine," Rotoli said. "If you can imagine it, you can make it."

While home brewing is at the heart of what Rotoli does through Just Brew It, he has also expanded his business to appeal to craft beer lovers like himself.

Craft beer on tap has been available at Just Brew It for the past two years, Rotoli said. Customers can indulge in tastings or order a pint to enjoy while shopping in the store.

There are also numerous bottled craft beers available at Just Brew It, too.

"Typically it's the harder to find craft beers and the specialty kind of beers that we carry," Rotoli said.

For those who are into hard ciders, Just Brew It also sells cider concentrate kits and rents equipment for cider and wine making.

To learn more about home brewing and the products available at Just Brew It, visit the store's web site here or call 775-461-0641.

Just Brew It is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. It is closed on Sundays.