EMILY REID/Arizona Daily Wildcat Hops and grain, two of the primary ingredients needed to make beer.

With the onslaught of Martha Stewart and other do-it-yourself entrepreneurs, momentum propelling the self-made product empire has expanded beyond Victorian birdhouses and embroidered pig pillowcases to include truly practical, everyday commodities such as beer.

Today's sophisticated home-brewed beer is no moonshine distilled in a bathtub. It is a culinary art.

Some of the greatest advantages to home-brewed beer are its freshness and customization options, as well as an appreciation of the process.

"People who know how to make beer understand the differences between one type of beer and another better," said Steve Sampliner, University of Arizona classics senior and veteran beer brewer of three and a half years.

The possibilities to individualize beer are endless; the brewer controls the alcohol content, the type of beer, hops and flavor.

Brew Your Own Beer, a local business specializing in home brews, carries fruit flavorings such as strawberry, kiwi or raspberry, as well as extracts like licorice, coriander seeds and rose hips to spice up the regular draft.

Beer recipes instruct the brewer how to imitate any type of popular beer from basic Bud Light to Pete's Wicked Strawberry Ale.

"It (beer brewing) is cooking. You have a recipe and a bunch of ingredients," Sampliner said.

Brewers aren't limited to any type of person. When he first opened his business seven years ago, Brew Your Own Brew owner Gary Wilder anticipated that his customers would be students. Since then, Wilder has helped everyone from doctors, dentists, students and truck drivers to brew homemade beer. In short, anyone who appreciates beer can make it. Wilder estimated his store gains two new customers a day.

"If you can boil water, you can make beer," Wilder said.

Basic tools necessary to brew are a pot to cook the beer in, a bucket to ferment the beer and bottles to serve the beer in. Ingredients include grains, hops, yeast and flavors. Extract brewing, the easiest beer brewing process, takes approximately three hours of labor to produce a normal batch of five gallons of beer - enough for beverages at a barbecue or to drink one person alone into a stupor.

For the do-it-yourself inept, Brew Your Own Beer offers free evening classes every second Thursday of each month.

As friendly as bottle of beer may appear, potential danger lurks behind every batch. Once when home brewing beer, Sampliner fermented his beer at too warm of a temperature. He produced methanol, a poison that can blind people. When tasting the batch with friends, he realized something wasn't quite right and poured the beer out. Fortunately, there were no eyesight casualties.

Home beer brewer and UA media arts sophomore Tony Alonzo started brewing the hard way.

"We tried Mr. Beer, a kit you buy at Price Club," Alonzo said. "Mr. Beer really sucked."

After the initial mishap, Alonzo purchased more reputable equipment. However, the process was still not glitch-free: Alonzo overfilled one of his bottles and it exploded under his bed.

"That was kind of a pain," Alonzo said.