- And pasteurization.

If it was not for pasteurization, they could never have considered putting their beer out onto market.

- [Michael] Gosh, has it been five years since we first met this guy?

It all began when we decided to do a story on the history of beer in Indiana, a rich heritage indeed.

But on that show, we also gave a tip of the mug to the emerging popularity of home brewing.

And that's when we met one Russell Levitt.

We didn't know it at the time, but Russell made his very first batch of beer for us that day.

- That actually was my very first batch of beer.

You caught me bottling my very first batch of beer.

♪ There is a tavern in the town ♪ ♪ In the town ♪ ♪ And there my dear love sits him down ♪ ♪ Sits him down ♪ - [Michael] Soon after that first batch, Russell discovered that beer was just in his blood, and we're not talking about some sobriety test.

- One interesting thing is that my grandmother on my mother's side told me that my great, or my great-grandfather, her father was the rabbi, the mayor, and the winemaker in the town that they lived in.

So already, I'm a beer maker.

Who knows if I'll ever be mayor, and I'll never be a rabbi, but maybe I'll be a spiritual leader, who knows?

Who knows?

So I'm sort of following actually kind of a genetic lineage in that sense.

♪ We'll drink a drink a drink ♪ ♪ To Lily the pink, the pink, the pink ♪ ♪ The savior of the human race ♪ - [Michael] Well, great great grandpa would probably be pretty proud of his great grandson these days.

Russell has won national awards for his home brews.

But more than that, today Russell is in charge of brewing all the beer at Bloomington Indiana's first brew pub.

- We have the Ruby Ale, Oil Kettle, which you can hear behind me probably.

In the winter, I made a cask-conditioned ale that we serve on our beer (indistinct) and I put it in my fermenters with some yeast, and the yeast eat the sugar.

Making a golden ale, I'd like to make a Munich-style lager for the, pump it out of the fermentor into a serving tank.

And my lines here and the cooler go directly from the serving tank.

Lots of beers, lots of different things.

- [Michael] Make no mistake, Russell Levitt knows his beer.

But what could be most important here is that Russell took a dream and made it happen.

♪ Everybody ♪ ♪ La la la la la la ♪ - It combines everything for me.

I enjoy the physical labor, I enjoy the physics of the machinery and working with tools, I enjoy the biology, the biochemistry.

I enjoy the cooking aspect of it, and it's very intuitive in that way.

I don't know if you can see, but there's the window back there that everyone can see me, and that's sort of like television.

So I'm on stage even, in a way, it's entertaining.

And when I give tours, it's very entertaining.

- [Michael] Ancient brewers often bestowed beer with magical or mystical qualities.

But Russell says his success was no mystery.

It came from hard work, persistence, and something he picked up from his older brother.

- Who impressed me with the philosophy that in this world we make things happen.

They don't really happen to us.

There are really no accidents according to his philosophy.

And I kind of take that on.

People who wait around for things to happen to them wait forever.

(polka music) - [Michael] An ongoing debate among scholars and historians centers around an age-old question, which came first, beer or bread?

Beer is just that ancient.

Russell Levitt is proud of beer's heritage, and follows its time-tested traditions, but he is also not afraid to try something new.

And in his own way, Russell Levitt is making a little history of his own.

- Actually, I caught a yeast out of the air here in Bloomington that I'm having some folks and biologists over at IU work on it for me.

Made some pretty good beer and test batches.

So we may be able to have an indigenous style.

It's very similar to the wit style of Belgium in flavor.

So I thought I'd call the beer a Hoosier Half Wit.

But we're gonna see what it ends up being.

- [Announcer] For more Across Indiana stories, go to wfyi.org/acrossindiana.