National Homebrew Day Group Brew-In

by Roger St.Denis

The second annual Draught Board National Homebrew Day Group Brew was a big hit. The day was warm and sunny in Alamo at Bob Jones’ house. The 3 car garage provided shade from the sun and more than enough space for the 5 brewing setups. There were plenty of hose bibs and hoses so no one had to wait for water during the day's activities. The natural gas, however, was stretched to its limit for running two simultaneous set-ups.

We all brewed a wheat beer using the guidelines established in the April newsletter. Each brewer's recipe and notes will be compiled and reported in a forthcoming newsletter (July).

Brewing equipment ranged from well thought out, compact and efficient setups to a hodgepodge of basic cooking stuff (my patio table setup.) Bob Jones and Ken Koupal have the most space efficient setups imaginable with the brewing rack also designed to accommodate all the large bulky implements of brewing in a space approximately 2' X 3' X 4'. They also use natural gas (which is a considerably quieter burn) so they don't have to deal with empty LP tanks on brew day. Harry Graham makes his excellent beers with an ordinary Cajun Cooker and 72-quart picnic cooler mash-tun/lauter-ton supported 5 feet in the air on milk crates. I also have a picnic cooler mash-tun/lauter-ton setup with borrowed cooker and wort chiller, Thanks Dan. John Pyles brought out a Cajun Cooker and pot to do an extract batch. I learned a great deal from each of the brewers and was glad for the opportunity.

Brewing started at 9:00 am. All the equipment was cleaned and loaded to the vehicles with carboys of wort pitched with ale yeast complements of the Hoptown Brewery by 2:00pm. The resultant beers will be sampled at the picnic in July.

During the brewing process Bob Jones prepared his hot Jambalaya and Bruce Brazil manned the barbecue for an excellent assortment of sausages. John Pyles brought the club’s Beer-Across-America beers, all nine 6-packs. A full day of brewing worked up a huge appetite and thirst so off we went.

Many thanks to Bob and Loretta Jones for allowing us the use of their home. It really worked out well. Thanks to Scott at the Hoptown brewery for the yeast, we certainly had enough. Thanks to Bruce Brazil for the sausages, cooking, and malt milling. Thanks to the brewers who took the time and effort to put their show on the road. It was an educational and entertaining afternoon. Thanks again to one and all.

Editor’s note: Group Brewers: Please bring your recipes to the June meeting or send them to Ken Koupal, so that they can be written up in matrix format in the July newsletter. We want to compare recipes when we taste the beers at the picnic. Thanks!