A decade after the home brewing of beer became legal, thousands are bellying up to a new hobby.

In an act akin to heresy, Rande Reed, who lives in this town that beer made famous and who works in a Milwaukee brewery, has his own brew of choice. It’s still Milwaukee beer--it’s just that it’s made next to the washing machine in Reed’s basement.

Reed is far from alone. “After you’ve had a home brew, commercial American beers taste like water,” says Mary Uthemann, owner of a brewing supply shop in Milwaukee.

The fact that homemade suds-making has taken hold here is testimony to a growing national craze.

Hobbyists Show Zeal

A decade after Congress and former President Jimmy Carter--responding to bottled up demand--made home brewing of beer legal, Americans are bellying up to the idea by the thousands. They are turning out six-packs with the zeal others devote to canning vegetables or putting up jams. Beer-making has replaced wine-making as the dominant hobby fermentation activity in the United States, according to sellers of both wine- and beer-making equipment and supplies.

More than a million people--most of them men--try their hand at beer-making every year. Half of them will make more than one batch, says Charlie Papazian, president of the Denver-based American Homebrewers Assn., whose membership has grown 20% in each of the last two years. Annual sales of home-brewing supplies from 1,500 shops and mail-order businesses approach $50 million, says Papazian.

At the Wisconsin State Fair, one of the few fairs in the nation with beer judging, home brew entries have expanded from 30 in 1985 to 121 last year, reports Jerry Uthemann, who oversees the competition.

The growing interest is attributed to a variety of factors, including the change in the law that permits individuals to make up to 100 gallons of beer a year and two-adult households to bottle up to 200 gallons. The law brought beer-making--long practiced illegally--out of the closet.

‘Became Fanatic’

“Once I tasted traditional English beer--ale--I was hooked,” says Reed, a former metal fabricator. “When I found the few imports that were available didn’t compare to what I remembered from my travel, I decided if you can brew wine at home, why not beer? I became fanatic about it.”

Reed, 36, a thin man who drinks two beers a day, typifies the serious home brewer. He has converted the basement of his Milwaukee bungalow into a home brewery. He makes his favorite beers--English-type ales--from scratch with a practice called whole-grain brewing. Reed grinds barley and uses dried hops instead of prepared ingredients that come in a variety of popular kits.

“Brewing from (a kit) is the equivalent of making a cake from a box,” says Reed. “It’s short, it’s quick, it’s easy and it produced fairly good results. It doesn’t take a lot of time and it doesn’t require a lot of expensive equipment.”

Because he is so meticulous, Reed’s brewing day lasts about eight hours, well over twice as long as brewing with kits. And like other home brewers, Reed has turned his hobby into a profession. He gave up metalworking and became an assistant brewer at Milwaukee’s tiny Sprecher Brewing Co., a microbrewery that specializes in traditional European-style beers.

For the hobby brewer using a kit, the initial processes take at least two hours. Fermentation can take about a week and aging takes 10 days or more before the beer is ready to drink.

Calls Brewing Rewarding

“It isn’t easier than collecting stamps but work is relative,” says Papazian. “How much time do people spend fixing their cars or mowing their lawns? And brewing is a lot more enjoyable, a lot more rewarding.”

Home brewing doesn’t require a stout investment. The hobby brewer can start with a $65 to $70 investment in equipment and can make a batch of beer for as little as $10 for nine six-packs. A high quality beer might run $20 or $25 for ingredients.

There are an estimated 150 home brew clubs whose names tell much about home brewing. They range from the effervescent to some that are, well, just serious and flat. Included are: Clan de Stein, the Maltose Falcons, the Sonoma Beerocrats, the Foam Rangers, the Bock ‘n’ Ale-ians and the Amateur Brewers of Central New York.

Jan Blochwitz, 28, a Madison, Wis., pastry chef and one of only two women in her home brewing club, says that “people think of a darker, heavier beer as something men are supposed to like better. And a lot of women prefer wine. I’m baffled by that.”

“Home brewers are very individualistic,” says Dave Norton, a Kenosha, Wis., firefighter, beer maker and owner of Nort’s Worts, a brewing supply store. “Brewing takes over their life. It’s more important than drinking. They give a lot of beer away.

“It is therapy for me,” says Norton. “It’s creative. When I felt bad I used to cook up a batch of chili. Now, I brew beer.”

Researcher Tracy Shryer contributed to this story.