Boulder, Colo. – April 25, 2007 – BIG BREW X (10) celebrates a 10 year tradition of a worldwide simultaneous toast to homebrewing and the enjoyment of great beer. No homebrewer should miss it. This exciting and popular event on May 5 will have 3,000 homebrewers worldwide savoring and singing the praises of a hobby that has been around thousands of years. Organized by the American Homebrewers Association (AHA), BIG BREW celebrates National Homebrew Day, honored each year on the first Saturday of May.

http://www.beertown.org/events/bigbrew/index.html

We have officially registered our site as Bar*Nuba and we are going to brew a 10 gallon batch of Griffin Spit IPA (If you are a dog lover this recipe has a great story). 

http://www.beertown.org/events/bigbrew/recipes.html

Everyone is welcome so feel free to stop by 9409 Manor Forge Way, Owings Mills, MD 21117 anytime after 10am.  We will also have the grill fired up.  Hope to see you on Saturday!

 

 

Well our brew day was successful.  We brewed 10 gallons of the Bell's Two Hearted Ale clone without a hitch . . . well almost.  When we started sparging the wort would not run out of our lines . . .we had a stuck sparge - we tried blowing into the line . . . no luck, we tried a jamming a real long screw driver in the line - no luck . . .finally after what seemed like forever we had a stroke of genius and decided to dump the contents of the mash tun into our boil kettle and begin the sparge process - hopefully we don't get to much hot side aeration - I guess we will find out.  The brew day was straight forward from there and we had plenty of wort to fill two 5 gallon carboys.  Fermentation was rolling within 24 hours and we are looking forward to drinking this beer in about 3 weeks. 

 

Dan also installed a new temperature gauge on the boil kettle which was a great equipment upgrade.

 

Check out the new pics . . . they are all from Saturday's session.

4/12/7

 

Get ready . . . . we have a 10 gallon brew day planned!

 

After a few month hiatus and several empty kegs we are going to fire up the brewery on Saturday, 4/14/7.  I must admit we had a little inspiration from our buddy Dave.  Dave and his wife Jill (Tam’s cousin) had us over for Sushi a few weeks ago . . . Dave is also an avid home brewer and served up a few variations of a Bell's Two Hearted Ale clone (1 was dry hopped in the secondary and the other was dry hopped in the serving keg) and a cask beer served from a beer engine to complement our awesome dinner.  The ladies complemented their meals with a few bottles of vino (ask me about Tam’s 695 experience). 

 

So . . . if you are interested stop over on Saturday and enjoy a brew day with us.

01/07/07

Two Growlers of Duclaw, Playoffs and Ten Pounds of Grain . . .

 

We figured that we would kick off the New Year in style by brewing a clone of Magic Hat's Blind Faith IPA. . .

 

So . . .  the brew day starts when Dan rolls up with two 64 ounce growlers of Duclaw Brewing Company’s Venom IPA and Bad Moon Porter. Unfortunately, Dan was nursing a bit of a hang-over from the Saturday night festivities in which he partook. Dan suggested that we wait to tap into the 128 ounces of liquid enchantment.   Someone needs to let him know that more beer is the best cure for a hangover!  I reluctantly put the growlers into the fridge to chill while we set-up our gear and also to give Dan’s tummy some time to feel better. 

 

The brew day was pretty straight forward. We mashed at 151 degrees for 90 minutes, normally we mash for 60minutes so the additional ½ hour gave us a little more time to hang out and watch the Patriots v. Jets playoff game.  Dan also used this extra time to modify the counter flow chiller by adding new tubing and clamps.  We were also able to batch sparge four times and maintain great extraction levels, which was a first for us.  This brew called for a multitude of hops including: Cascade, Williamette and Fuggle.  Tam was the “Brewers Ass” of the day and assisted with most of the hop additions.  By the end of the brew day we successfully made another round of beer and had two empty Growlers – it was a great day!

 

Oh yeah, just to clarify:  “Brewers Ass” is short for Brewers Assistant . . .  

 

Note to self:  Do not put wet grain in a cardboard box . . . it makes a big mess J

 

On deck: Porter

Secondary: empty

Primary: Blind Faith IPA Clone

Next up: Dan’s choice???

Our plans for releasing the Porter during the New Years party at Super’s were put on hold.  However, Dan and I kegged our Porter last evening and expect to debut it either during the playoffs or the Super Bowl.  Our next brew day is set for Sunday, 1/7/7.  Stop over and give us a hand if you are in the neighborhood.