Editor’s note: Some names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

Here’s some good news: Brewing your own beer is relatively cheap. Here’s some really good news: UAF offers a brewing class for those who want to learn.

“Hey why not?” said Sean Holland, 21, a senior taking the brewing class through UAF’s Tanana Valley Campus.

With a knowledge of zymurgy (brewing alcohol) under your hat, you can begin brewing on your own. The class requires students to be of legal age, however all the necessary equipment, supplies and ingredients can be purchased by anyone. With all the right equipment and a good location, brewing is about as easy as baking a cake.

But here’s the bad news: You cannot brew beer in your dorm room.

Article V, Rule 9 of the Resident Handbook on Resident Life Policies and Expectations states, “The manufacture or sale of alcohol is strictly prohibited in any university residential facility.” A few Resident Life employees were not able to recall the exact words of the rule but knew something of its existence.

Despite this regulation, there are those students who do brew in the dorms.

“It’s an apple cider,” said one dorm resident as he pulled a mason jar full of green liquid out from under his desk. He use to brew at home and brought the process to college. He and his new roommate, brew their brand of alcohol labeled, “Long Time Brewing.”

They say that cooking the yeast and other ingredients is an important step in the beer making process. “We’ve experimented with different sugars and yeasts to try to get different tastes. Last year I used champagne yeast. Very strong.”

A kitchen is needed to cook everything and in the resident halls the kitchens are communal. “We had people stop by when we were cooking. Cause of the smell,” said the brewer. “So we had some rhubarb sitting on the counter to make it seem we were cooking pie.”

“I’d assume it would be hard to tell if it didn’t smell like beer,” said a resident assistant at one residence hall. Which is very true if you’ve ever smelt wort boiling. Wort is just a fancy name for all the ingredients of the beer before fermentation.

“We were out in the woods last year in winter trying to filter everything.” He also mentioned using a Brita water filter to strain the used yeast and hops from the alcohol. “We used coffee filters in the kitchen but we kept looking over our shoulders.”

They keep their brew in a refrigerator in a neighboring dorm room. “You have to keep it cold.” The whole brewing process took about three weeks for their latest brew. They said that when it’s all finished the beer is frequently, “a big hit with all our friends.”

For those wanting brew beer legally, zymurgy is the way to go.

Instructor Trev Mostella claims those who take the class should be “beer snobs” by the end of the term. Holland commented, “I am now more than I was.”

Introduction to Zymurgy began in the spring of 2004 but was poorly advertised and only had a few attendees. Today there are two classes offered during the semester: Introduction to and Intermediate Zymurgy.

“You get what you need from the class,” said Mostella. “There is a lot of beer out there and I want people to know what they’re getting.” Mostella has been brewing for over 20 years.

Even those with some experience can use a little instruction.

Scott Milliken, 52, brewed his own beer before taking the zymurgy class. “Mostly pale ales,” he said. Milliken is taking the intro class after his wife saw an ad in the paper. “She said, ‘If you’re going to be making beer, you might as well be making good beer.’”

Biology student Kristie Hilton is taking Introduction to Zymurgy. “I like beer and it’s nice to know where it comes from.” She was one of the 10 students who were in the kitchen Friday night for the final class. Hilton said, “Free beer and food is a plus for the starving college student.”

During one class in late October the students spent the first half of class bottling two beers they started at the beginning of the semester. The Double Chocolate Stout and a Belgian Wit filled almost four cases worth of bottles. In the meantime, another five gallons of wort boils on a burner in another area of the kitchen.

It should be noted that the home brewing class does not promote brewing on campus and there is no homework, which is important for those living in the dorms. Students who are brewing on campus may have already been taught or simply look it up on the Internet.