A couples' guide to beer and wine

Making your own beer and wine doesn't have to be a difficult, confusing process, especially with the help of seasoned veterans.

That's why Dave and Desiree Knott of High Gravity Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies offer free courses to guide people through the process. The classes are at 11 a.m. every other Saturday at the store, and they alternate between beer and wine making.

For the beer classes, Dave goes over the most common method of home brewing, using a malt extract-based recipe with specialty grains and hops.

"You can use normal cookware and keep everything on the kitchen stove and still be faithful to most of the world's beer styles," he said.

Desiree teaches the wine-making classes and it's done similarly, presented in cooking show-style with everything prepared in advance. The one-hour classes also include tastings, and attendees to the wine classes get to take home a free bottle.

The store features a small kitchen area where the classes are presented.

"I demonstrate procedures applicable to all beer styles and don't necessarily make a certain beer style," Dave said. "It's done in real time so people can ask questions and feel they have the confidence level to do it at home.

"It's just Dave showing people how to make beer or Desiree showing people how to make wine."

The classes demonstrate the steps from beginning to bottling.

"It's start to finish in one hour what usually takes a couple of weeks for beer or a month for wine," he said.

The couple started teaching the classes when they opened High Gravity more than four years ago.

"We realized when we started that a lot of people weren't familiar with beer and wine making and didn't know they could make it themselves," Dave said. "We thought the workshops would be a good way to give people enough confidence to go through with it."

You can register in advance for the classes, or just show up. The next class is a beer session, 11 a.m. Dec. 27 at the store, 7164 S. Memorial Drive. For more, or to check the class schedules, call 461-2605 or go online to tulsaworld.com/highgravity.