WORTH TWP — The air at Cooper's Lake Campground was filled with the aroma of malted barley and boiled hops Saturday that could only come from one source — brewing beer.

Several hundred beer enthusiasts, including 83 home brewers, filled the campground for the seventh annual BrewersFest.

The all-day event provides an opportunity for home brewers to share their beers, taste those that others have made, and learn and share tips, recipes and techniques.

It is also a competition with the top three beers, as voted by the crowd, honored as Tasters Choice.

The Butler Area Society of Homebrewers, a club consisting of about 15 people, brought 12 beers to be sampled.

The society meets about once a month, often to sample the beers they have recently brewed, member Nate Banks said.

Brewing a beer and allowing it to properly ferment takes several weeks, so the beers offered for sampling were completed well before the festival.

But several brewers, including the Butler group, brought propane burners, kettles and buckets to brew beer at the campground as a demonstration.

“Some people bring a lot of knowledge. It's a great community,” Banks said.

Though some brewers use more advanced or unconventional techniques, brewing isn't necessarily very complicated.

“If you can follow a recipe, that's all you need to get started,” Banks said.

Bryan Krstonich of West Deer Township, Allegheny County, said he has been brewing beer in his living room for more than 10 years.

Saturday he brought 12 types of beer and wine for sampling.

Though he doesn't actually drink alcohol, Krstonich said he enjoys making it as a hobby and often supplies beer for family and friends.

“Someone will have a party and they'll ask me to make a keg, so I'll do it for them,” he said.

His brewing equipment, which he made himself, is mostly made from recycled kegs, pipes and hoses. Some of the more experimental drinks he had Saturday included barley wine and “Apple Jack” which he said tastes like apple pie.

One thing that separates home brewers from commercial brewers is the freedom to try whatever, Krstonich said.

No two batches of beer he makes ever tastes exactly the same.

“It's mostly trial and error. I kind of do it like grandma, a little bit of this, a little bit of that,” he said.

Phil Shinsky of Prospect said most of the brewers arrived at the campground Thursday or Friday and had a good time socializing.

“It's a great event. It's relaxing and it's great to be with good people who appreciate good beer,” he said.

Shinksy said he has been brewing beer for about five years after his brother got him interested.

Interest in beer making seems to be on the rise, he said.

“There is such a ground swell of interest in craft beers and home brewing; it's a fun hobby,” he said.

Emilee Goodman of Allison Park, Allegheny County, said she came to sample the wide variety of beer.

Some of the more unusual offerings included maple-flavored beer, mint chocolate chip beer and Almond Joy-flavored beer. There were also brewers who offered a food pairing with their beer, such as ginger beer paired with Chinese-style pork.

But everyone has preferences and not every home brew was a winner.

“Some of them were weird. Some of them I took one sip and then tossed the rest,” Goodman said.