It was winter, and Todd Abraham and his wife were bored and snowed-in, so they decided they needed a hobby: beer.

“It was actually my wife’s idea,” said Abraham, a research associate at the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research. “We both like different kinds of beer and always have. We figured we’d give this a shot, and we really liked it.”

Abraham and his wife, Becka, have been brewing beer for a little over two years now, and they entered 15 beers into competition at the Iowa State Fair. He said they managed to win ribbons for 10 of their beers, and two of them were ranked first in their categories.

This is the first time they have entered beers at the state fair and Abraham said he and his wife were a little anxious about competing. After getting some encouragement from their friends at the Ames Brewers League, they decided to go for it, and Abraham said he is glad they did.

“One nice thing is not only potentially winning something, but you get all of this feedback from the people who judge the beer, so minor flaws are identified. You can start correcting your recipes and get better at what you’re trying to make,” he said.

Abraham said the first batch of beer that he and his wife made was from a kit, so all they had to do was follow the instructions. After awhile they got a little bolder and started formulating their own recipes for beer.

“That’s one of the main reasons my wife and I started doing it, the creativity is sort of endless. My wife is probably more on the outer ends of the creativity. She likes fruit beers and that sort of thing, so she made a pomegranate pale ale,” Abraham said.

He said his personal favorites of the 15 beers they entered in the state fair are a Vienna lager, which finished first in its category, and a Scottish Heavy Ale. Their highest ranking beer was an American wheat beer that finished first in its category and scored high enough to achieve a gold ribbon.

Abraham said the brewing process is difficult to learn, because there are so many different techniques and ingredients you can use.

He said the basic process is to mash and mill some grain, boil it, add hops, cool it down, add a liquid yeast culture and then ferment the mixture for anywhere from a week to a month.

He said the style of beer is determined by the temperature at which it is fermented.

“Ales are often fermented a little bit warmer, and because of that they’ll have a little more fruity flavor to them. Lagers are fermented much cooler, and because of that they tend to be cleaner, crisper beers,” Abraham said.

In their two years of brewing beer, Abraham and his wife have only had two batches of beer that didn’t turn out quite right – “one just tasted awful” – but the other got contaminated by bacteria and was undrinkable.

“We watered the grass with that one,” Abraham said.

Abraham said he and his wife are hoping to make more beers and enter more competitions in the years to come, but for now they look forward to showing their beers at the fair.

“This is our first year competing in the state fair, so I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Abraham said. “We’re kind of eager to go down there this week to see what’s there.”