They usually do it in the privacy of their own kitchens, basements or even their garages. This Saturday, however, home brewers near and far will bring their hobby out in public in honor of "Teach A Friend to Homebrew Day."

This annual event, which is sponsored by the American Homebrewers Association, is designed to introduce people to what has become an increasingly popular hobby in recent years - brewing your own beer.

Each November, for the last 10 years, thousands of home brewers from across the United States and around the world, have opened their "shops" to the public for this event in an effort to share their knowledge and passion for what Frank Tylla of the Belle City Home Brewers and Vintners describes as both an art and a science.

Tylla, who has been brewing his own beer since 1976, seems to enjoy the brewing process as much as he savors its results. Through the years the Racine resident has done a lot of research about different brewing methods, equipment and ingredients - and he's eager to share what he's learned along the way.

"It's always a lot more fun when there are more people involved," he said.

Tylla is one of approximately 30 home brewers in the Racine area who make up the Belle City Home Brewers and Vintners, a club which not only exists to support home brewing, but to establish a positive role in the community through charity and good will (go to http://www.bellecitybrew.org for more). The group will host Racine's "Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day" event on Saturday at Hop To It, a brewing and wine making supplier housed in the D.P. Wigley Co., 234 Wisconsin Ave.

"We hope people will stop by and see just how easy home brewing really is," said Mark Flynn, another member of the Belle City Home Brewers, and co-owner of Hop To It.

Lots of options

Like many culinary hobbies, home brewing can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. Anyone who can follow a recipe can do it, Flynn said, and the simplest batch of beer requires just a few pieces of equipment - including a large kettle, a thermometer, some bottles - and some basic ingredients.

"Some people want to be more involved in what happens and why it happens, while others just want to make the beer and be done with it," he said.

Tylla, who is retired, prefers to brew his beer with the all-grain method, which takes about six hours for its initial process, while Flynn, who still works full time, uses the partial grain (mash) method because it reduces his time to less than half of that. Beer can also be home brewed from malt extract (concentrated sugars extracted from malted barley), which is an even simpler method.

Keep in mind, that once the initial mixing, boiling and cooling of the ingredients takes place, the beer solution (wort) will need to ferment for several weeks before it can be bottled.

From start to drink time, most beers take at least a month to complete, Tylla said, but during much of that time the beer is doing its own thing, fermenting and carbonating itself.

The method used is but one example of the many choices that can be made when it comes to home brewing. Equally important is the style of the beer you choose to brew. With about 28 styles (ales, lagers, stouts, fruit beers etc.) of beer - and several variations within each style - home brewers have many recipes to choose from. And we haven't even talked about flavor yet. Malts can be custom blended for a wide range of flavors and some recipes can get pretty fancy.

One of Tylla's latest brews, for example, is a wood-aged, bourbon-flavored ale for which oak cubes that have been soaked for two weeks in bourbon, are used to flavor and Old English base beer. The idea is to create a brew that could have been aged in a bourbon barrel.

"It has the aroma of bourbon, more than the flavor of it," he said.

More interest

One of the developments that has increased interest in home brewing in recent years is the availability of a variety of cultured yeasts made especially for home brewers, Flynn said.

When these cultured yeasts became readily available in the late 1990s, they brought with them an incredible range of possibilities for home brewers, he explained. Prior to the that, home brewers were using regular bread yeast, which did not bring consistent results, Flynn said.

"With (the new culture yeasts), we can create just about anything,"

Cost savings is another reason for home brewing's popularity, especially in today's economy, Flynn said. With the initial investment in brewing equipment (a starter kit usually costs around $90), your first batch of beer usually costs you between $2 and $3 a bottle, he said. But any subsequent batches range from about 30 cents to 60 cents a bottle, depending on the style of beer made.

"No matter how you do it, you are saving money, compared to store bought beer," Flynn said.

Even more important, though, is the joy of brewing a good beer and sharing your creations with fellow beer lovers, according to both Flynn and Tylla.

"What really gets you started in home brewing is the flavor," said Flynn.

If You Go

WHAT: Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day event, hosted by the Belle City Home Brewers and Vintners

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 1)

WHERE: Hop To It at D.P. Wigley, 234 Wisconsin Ave.

COST: Free

INFO: For more about Saturday's event and the Belle City Home Brewers call (262) 554-4994