ISTANBUL, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Home brewing has recently become a new trending topic among the Turkish beer lovers, who are pursuing new tastes and cheaper costs.
Tens of thousands of people across the country are now brewing their own beer at home as Turkish law and regulation, passed in 2009, allow home brewing for up to 350 litres every year with a prohibition for the sale of the product.
Newbie brewers are increasingly more visible in social media platforms gathering in chat groups where they exchange ideas, techniques and recipes or learn more about the equipment for a good brew. The number is already over 50,000.
Tarik Apak and Hakan Ozkan, two home brewers have turned the ground floor of their office into a large kitchen in Istanbul, where they brew their own beer for the last five years.
Their system basically consists of three big tanks, a fermenter and a washing machine wringer converted into a malt mill.
"For the people like us, the biggest motivation behind pursuing our hobby was to taste different types of beers that were not available in our country," Apak told Xinhua.
He said until recently limited number of lagers and pilsners (a sub-type of lager) were the only available beer types that they could actually find in Istanbul and Turkey.
"They are all very nice but sometimes you want more out of your brew," he added.
"Today we are preparing pale ale," Ozkan continued going through the ingredients of that particular type of beer written on a notebook. His notebook has over 20 recipes of different kinds of beers.
"We are trying to improve our recipes and create new beers suitable for our changing tastes on daily basis," Ozkan said while picking some different types of hops to be added into the mixture.
The process starts by crushing the malt in the mill and then transferring it into a mash tun, where the transformation of malt starch into sugars takes place.
This is just the beginning of rather complex wholegrain home brewing process, which will last for about three weeks.
For Pirata Cihan, a resident of Istanbul's Beyoglu district, on the other hand, accessing to cheaper beers is the main reason behind the growing home brewing market.
High taxes imposed on alcoholic beverages, which recently went up to 63 percent for beers forced him to produce his own beer at home.
Cihan told Xinhua that it is also possible to brew beer using liquid extract and the process is not more complex than cooking a ready made soup mix.
For the entire process all he needs is a simple kit, containing condensed wort. It has everything ready for fermentation.
He bought the kit, including a fermenting bucket with a spout and airlock and capping tools, online for 110 Turkish liras (about 30 U.S. dollars).
"I also spend another 25 dollars or so for a can of pilsner malt extract and other stuffs like table sugar and get an average of 42 to 43 bottles at the end of the fermentation lasting up to two weeks," Cihan said.
For Rasim Kulca, a bar owner in the busy Istiklal Street, beer is known as the beverage of students in Turkish culture and even a nominal increase of one or two liras have a heavy burden for their budget.
"Every six months we are having an increase in taxes," he told Xinhua in his small bar, which was almost empty at 4 pm in the day. But, Kulca was optimistic for the rest of the day.
He is selling 50 centilitre of draft beer for 11 Turkish liras (or approximately 3 dollars). Depending on the spot, the price of the same beer price could go up to 5 dollars in the neighborhood.
"Experiencing the gradual increase of the prices, my costumers, mostly students, tempted to brew their own beer at home and consume it there instead of going out to bars," Kulca added.
