Big Brew at Dr. Bob's Lab
By Mark Tumarkin
Hogtown Brewers was registered as Site # 76 for the AHA 4th annual Big Brew. This is the AHA's event celebrating National Homebrew Day by bringing the national (actually international) brewing community together at one time, though in many various locations, to brew the same beer recipe. In the past, we have held our Monster Mash events on National Homebrew Day, but haven't really participated in Big Brew.
This year, we decided to get with the program. We registered as an official site, and planned to brew both of the official recipes. Present for the event were: Dr. Bob, Ziggy, Wayne, Will, Pete and Catherine, Wilbur, Craig, Matt, Frederick, Greg, and Mark.
The first recipe was Steve Jones's Old Ale that won him Homebrew of the Year recognition at last years' National Homebrew Competition. The second recipe was a Maibock from George Fix. It was chosen before his death, but also served as a memorial of his unfortunate and early passing. George was a tremendous asset to the homebrewing community and will be sorely missed. We brewed 15 gals of the old ale, and 12 gallons of the maibock. Both of these are BIG beers, giving a new meaning to Big Brew.
Another part of the Big Brew celebration was the simultaneous toast at 12 o'clock Central time. In typical Hogtown fashion, we missed the actual toast, but went ahead and toasted George, Big Brew and National Homebrew Day a bit later in the afternoon. We used the remaining Bass from the Medieval Faire as the main beer for Big Brew. It was a bit past its prime, but good none the less.
The brew day itself was an adventure. Dr. Bob's lab is a wonderous playground of recycled equipment. Central to the process were steam jacketed mash tuns and boiling kettles, a vibrating sparge device, various, hoses, pumps, coils, refractometers and other brewing apparati. . Still, like many brewing systems, it is a kludged together affair and presented a series of challenges. Sanitation issues were hotly debated as were hot-side aeration, oxidation, yeast starter procedures and other brewing issues. Key to the day was Charlie Papazian's homebrewing mantra: Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew. The two big batches, as well as the challenges of brewing on an unfamiliar system, made for a long day. We started at 10, and by the time we'd finished clean-up it was almost 9:00. Some handled the stress better than others. Dr. Bob remained amazingly cool throughout, while Ziggy's stressometer was on max most of the day.
Still, a good time was had by all. Now, we just need to be patient in order to find out how the beer turns out.