Meet the Homebrewers of Los Angeles - The Bakofsky Brothers

Did you know in the United States there are over 750,000 homebrewers? Neither did we. Los Angeles is quickly becoming home for multiple new breweries, but it has been home to homebrewers for decades. We will be spotlighting homebrewers around our home of L.A. Today we start with two brothers you may have seen here and there around town.

Lee and Andrew are two Texas transplants who brew in East L.A. Their home brewery/art studio/garage is a family affair — even Dad helped them weld and engineer their mash tun and kettle set up. As co-founders of the Eastside Brewers Association*, they bring together beer lovers from all over Los Angeles. They also provide the L.A. beer community some seriously sweet beer-centric art (you know that giant goat painting at the Surly Goat? Yeah, they did that.) They have been homebrewing together for about three years and have been an integral behind-the-scenes part of the Eagle Rock Brewery team.

How did you get into homebrewing?
Lee: My employers gave me a gift certificate to Culver City Homebrew Supply about 3 years ago. Opened a massive can of worms. Our first batch turned out great (American Blonde Ale) which got us hooked. (Second batch had to be dumped to to some ‘great ideas’ we had regarding modifying the process, but that’s another story…)
Andrew: I started to get into better beer back in college (in Texas) with beers like those from Real Ale and then it snowballed once Lee’s boss’s got him the homebrew certificate. From there it has taken over our lives, our homes, just about everything.

Are you a lone brewer or do you brew with friends?
Occasionally we go solo, but normally it’s Andrew and I. We’ll also have friends come over to learn, or help others brew for various projects.

Have you taken any prizes for your brews?
Lee: We have. I don’t really keep track, but we’ve racked up a fair amount of ribbons, medals, etc. We don’t enter as often as we should however, due to pains in the ass related to bottling.
Andrew: Yes, but I’m not sure which to be honest. There’s no tally sheet, I don’t think. Usually we enter our beers together. Early on we won an award for one of our first beers, and then lately some more recent ones for the LA County Fair and the Hangar 24 competition.

What is your favorite brew you’ve made?
Lee: Tough call. I never really think they’re good enough but everyone else seems to really like them. Or they’re just being nice… Recently we did a west-coast style red ale that I like a lot. Big hop flavor and aroma but quite balanced in terms of bitterness. The Coconut Porter was really good, as was the Imperial Stout and Cabernet oak aged quad with Brettanomyces.
Andrew: Hard to say, I’ve lost track of them. There was a dark mild recently that was amazing, and sadly it’s now all gone. A Coconut Porter of the past and an Imperial Stout we did were pretty fantastic as well. We’ve been trying all different kinds of beers, so it seems to be a seasonal thing.

What’s the most unusual brew you’ve attempted?
Lee: We do grapefruit witbier that has a lot of beets in it, I guess that’s the most ‘far out’…
Andrew: I suppose that depends on what you call unusual. We did a smoked Hefe that was interesting, and a beer with smoked yams added to the mash and brewed with rye (later named Yam on Rye), and also a grapefruit witbier with beets for color (to give it that ruby red look). I think those could be called usual (and delicious).

Have you had any big disasters in homebrewing?
Lee: Pretty much any time I multitask on a brew day yields disaster…Andrew’s main job aside from quality control is to keep me from multitasking.
Andrew: Any time we get distracted. Although one time when we were new, we came up with what we though to be rather ingenious, and ultimately idiotic idea to “oxygenate” the wort…very bad things happened as result.

Ever made any other beverages, like wine or rootbeer?
Lee: The way I see it there’s beer and there’s water. If you’re not drinking beer, then you should be having water. And vice versa. Why waste calories on any of that other sh*t? And don’t even get me started on mead…
Andrew: Nope. Someday maybe, but who needs it. With the variety of beer styles and things to experiment, getting to such things seems way down the road…except for whiskey. I’d like to make whiskey someday.

What are you brewing now?
Lee: A double steam beer is supposed to be next, but I’m bogged down with work at the moment, not sure when I’ll get to it.
Andrew: We just made an Oatmeal Pale Ale the day after returning from the Great American Beer Festival. Going to be fantastic. We made a beer the other night, an imperial smoked Schwarzbier.

How can someone try your beer?
Lee: We hate bottling, so you pretty much have to come by the house or make it to one of our parties.
Andrew: Just come by or come to one of the events we do with the club or various other parties we cater/host. We don’t brew it to drink alone (nor should we, in order to keep our girlish figures)

Where do you get your supplies?
Culver City Homebrew Supply, Woodland Hills, Long Beach, Online (MoreBeer, NorthernBrewer, NikoBrew), MoreBeer in Riverside.

Have you taught friends to brew or helped them become interested in it?
Lee: They frequently lose interest when they see how much cleaning is involved. But anyone is welcome to hang out when we’re brewing.
Andrew: Yes, though not all stick with it. I think sometimes they get intimidated by the amount of work, equipment and cleaning involved. But really we’ve come along way and gotten much more complex in our setup when really you need very little to start brewing and I think they forget that. All the bells and whistles help, but are not required to get going. We definitely try to spread the word and get people interested in both making and drinking better beer.

If you’re a homebrewer by night, what do you do during the day?
Graphic design, illustration, gallery shows, freelance work. We both went to school for Illustration and try to keep at it. Painting and such.

What’s next for you? What’s next for your association?
Brewpub…

What’s you’re advice to a newbie homebrewer?
Lee: Find someone that makes good beer and brew with them for a while, you’ll avoid learning a lot of things the hard way. Read John Palmer’s book and listen to the Brewing Network.
Andrew: Don’t quit. Things always go wrong, and will go very wrong sometimes. Batches will have to get dumped, things will get infected. Find someone who knows what they are doing and watch them, learn from them. No matter how much you think you know or think that your way is best, you can always learn something new or at least find inspiration for a new idea. Also, if possible find a friend to brew with, to start out with. Luckily Lee and I got into it together, but find a friend to learn to brew with, someone to bounce ideas off of, and honestly, to share the workload and cleaning (it makes a difference).

Wanna hang with L.A.’s homebrewers? Get on the Eastside Brewers* mailing list to stay up to date on their upcoming events and check out LA Beer Week’s Brewer’s Brunch, where the bros will be representin’.

*Update 6/3/11: It’s now the Yeastside Brewers and you can sign up for the mailing list here. Both the Bakofsky brothers are full-time employees at Eagle Rock Brewery. Go pay them a visit (and give them tips).