On an almost biweekly basis, a cozy three-bedroom apartment on West 10th Avenue becomes a beer-brewing steam room, as one Ohio State senior prepares for graduate school.
Sam Gambill, a graduating molecular genetics major, has spent the last two years of his college career teaching himself the art of brewing. In September, he begins an exclusive program in malting and brewing science at the University of California, Davis.
True enough. The process involves boiling gallons of aromatic hops and barley extract for up to two hours and coating the walls of the apartment, and everything in between, in a layer of thick sweat. On this occasion, Gambill looks into his recipe diary and decides upon a titled “Positively Pale Ale.”
“I’m interested in creating a new style of beer. People interested in brewing, and independent brewers, have shunned the Budweiser taste and style because of its prominence,” Gambill said.
“It’s popular for a reason, and I want to improve upon it by crafting my own recipe in the Budweiser vein,” he said. “American Light Ale will be that brew, and with it I will create a new genre of beer around it.”
Gambill, who says he’s had a long-standing interest in brewing, came into the craft inadvertently.
“I had a devoted woodworking hobby that I couldn’t really continue once I came to college, so I needed something new to get excited about,” Gambill said.
Wandering Clintonville one Saturday afternoon, Gambill stumbled into The Winemaker’s Shop, a 29-year-old dusty depot of do-it-yourself ingredients and utensils for home brewing enthusiasts located at 3377 N. High St. Gambill grabbed a home brewing guide and studied it. A month later he was back, spending $120 on pots, fermenters, large glass jugs and other supplies needed to get his first brew on the stove.
“In my first attempt I tried to replicate Barley’s Irish Rogue. It wasn’t on point, but wasn’t bad for a first attempt. It gave me a sense of creating beer along the taste range from malty (sweet) to a hoppy, bitter beer,” Gambill said.
The brewing graduate program at UCD is the only one of its kind, stateside, to cover the technological and biochemical aspects of the brewing process – including raw materials, malting, brewing, fermentation and fininshing, along with research and undergrad instruction.
“I got lucky as hell. The program only accepts a few people a year, and it’s really going to help me understand where all the pieces fall together in the brewing process. So I’ll understand how to manipulate one thing to tweak the taste to get just what I want – my own style of beer,” Gambill said.
Though very much a strict science, Gambill maintains the brewing process is an involved art form, shown through the subtle manipulations that can be made in the creation process.
In addition, benefits of knowing such an individual fill the thirsty needs of roommates and peers, on occasion.
“When the beer’s on the stove, I evacuate. The heat and the smell are intoxicating in a very bad way. It pays off in the end with all the great, free beer. I’m partial to his light variety,” roommate Joe Carr said, a senior English major.
As for the parents of the brewmeister, the Gambills back their son’s beer passion.
“My parents are very supportive and my dad is under the impression that my beers are hangover free, so he loves them. One of these days, though, there’ll be a beer that’s going to bite him back,” Gambill said.
