This is a cool idea: Brewing establishment offers laboratory for amateurs:

Coffill’s place of employment is a do-it-yourself brewing establishment known as IncrediBREW at 112 Daniel Webster Highway in Nashua, N.H. With his assistance, green amateurs are routinely taught the finer points of transforming malts, hops and barley into genuine homemade beer. While Coffill concedes he is a bit of an aficionado, he said brewing can enhance beverage appreciation in general.

"Once you know what goes into it, you can go out and have a better appreciation of what you’re drinking," he said. "If all you know is pop the cap off and drink your beer, this is definitely an eye-opener about what goes into the product."

At IncrediBREW, the brewing options include root beer and wine as well, but on this Friday afternoon the focus of patrons was squarely on beer.

Coffill said the first step in making a batch is choosing one out of some 80 recipes provided by the house. The choices include everything from ales to stouts, with comparisons and details provided for those still learning the finer nuances of beer.

The average batch costs between $100 and $130, and it yields 13.5 gallons of beer in the form of 72 22-ounce bottles. That comes to about $4.50 per six pack, which is a very competitive price for micro brewed beer, according to Coffill.

The article breaks down the brewing process pretty well, too; it’s extract brewing, rather than all-grain (to save time for a two-hour class).

According to IncrediBREW’s website, they’re the second oldest do-it-yourself brewery in the U.S. Impressive. And I like that they also do sodas—root beer, orange cream and even black cherry. I haven’t seen that too often.