Teach A Friend To Homebrew Day 2008

Today is Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day. Bet you didn't know that! I registered my house as Official TAFTHBD site #130 and had a few friends over to brew. You see them relaxing around the brewing beer to the left. We brewed twenty gallons of beer today! Art brewed five gallons of an American Wheat Ale with coriander and orange peels and five gallons of a Belgian Wit with coriander, orange peels and Morrocan preserved lemons! You can see it filling the carboy in the second photo on the page. Two other Lapeer Area Brewers are brewing either today or tomorrow, as well.

I brewed ten gallons of a simple English Mild. I strayed from the guidelines a bit as I wanted to use my own homegrown hops. My US Kent Goldings would have been the best choice but there were too few of them again this year so I opted for the American favorite, Cascade. I bittered with Nugget and added a pound of light Crystal malt for malty balance. In a few weeks I'll do a tasting and record the results, here. The beer came in at 1.036 OG and is otherwise "down the middle" of the style guidelines. It should be about 3.5% alcohol by volume; a nice session beer.

We had a great time today brewing, swapping stories and drinking homebrewed beer and cider (Thanks Brandon!). My lovely wife made a tremendous pot of Texas Chili (made with Venison Stew Meat that I butchered last week). OMG! Some homemade pita chips and a bit of sour cream and the spicy chili made for an excellent meal to top off a great day. And since I started at 6 AM we didn't finish cleaning up until after 6 PM, we needed that extra pick-me-up! I think that's what TAFTHBD is all about, really.

Slainte!
The Mild is to the left, there...