The Big Brew

Well, it's been a bit longer than I intended since my last entry, but I started working on an essay of sorts that is taking longer than I thought, and it's been a busy week or so, too. But eventually that will see the light of day.

In the mean time, yesterday I had some friends over to make a batch of beer.

I got interested in beer (for its own sake, as more than just a social lubricant) in my later college years---Coslow's pub in Champaign had a fairly wide selection of beers, especially for the time (mid-late 80s), and I discovered the joys of McEwan's Scotch Ale, a thick, dark, sweet beer unlike anything I had ever had. When I was in law school, I decided to take a stab at making some beer of my own. There was a shop in Ann Arbor that sold kits, so I whipped up a few batches. They were okay. I made some more while I was living with my parents studying for the bar, but when I moved up to Chicago to start working I was really cramped for space, so my brewing equipment stayed in Springfield.

Many years later, after I got married, we went down to Springfield and brought up all the rest of my stuff that was still at my folks', and my beermaking paraphernalia made the trip up. Then, a couple years ago, some friends mentioned making some beer, and we pulled it out again, supplemented with some of another friend's gear, and made some more beer. I believe that first batch was an English Brown Ale. It turned out well, and more beer followed. Another friend, coincidentally, was starting a homebrewing club around that time, which I joined, and for about a year we brewed fairly regularly.

As part of my newly invigorated brewing hobby, I joined the American Homebrewer's Association. They have a promotional program: "Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day," which is the first Saturday in November, when they encourage members to invite non-brewing friends to a brewing session, in hopes of getting them interested and involved. So for the past two years I've hosted a small brewing party. In 2006 we had a good time but none of the attendees caught the bug, but in 2007, several of the people who came subsequently got their own kits and started brewing beer! One of my co-workers, Katherine, had brought her husband Jim to the TaFtHB Day party, they had a good time, and for Christmas she got him a kit. And, Kelly from the Xylenes picked up a kit for herself too.

To encourage them, I thought it would be fun to get them together and make a big batch of beer. The brewing club had a big conical fermenter (the Fermenator) that was going more or less unused, so I borrowed that, everybody came over, and we brewed up 10 gallons of Kolsch, a golden ale style native to Koln/Cologne (depending on whether you speak German or French). Brewing is actually about a one-and-a-half man job, but it's a lot more fun with a few friends around. And more excitingly, everybody brought examples of their homebrewing endeavors, and their beers were good! My friend Dan besides helping out at the recent TaFtHB Day brew, was part of the first brewing session here in Chicago from a few years ago---he hadn't brewed before, but he took to it like a duck to water---he brought four beers, a mead, and a gruit he made. All were well received, although the gruit (a beer made with various herbs rather than hops) was of more historical interest. Hops are relatively recent additions to the conventional recipe for beer, having only come to prominence in the last few centuries. It was interesting to see what beer may have been like before they became standard. Dan's gruit was made with wormwood, gale, and rosemary. Jim had a pithy comment: "I wouldn't buy a six-pack of it, but I'd buy something like it." It was an experiment, and may be subject to further refining.

Kelly had made a "Pilsener" (although fermented with ale yeast) that turned out light and tasty, and Jim and Katherine brought a red ale. While poking around in the basement I found a 12-pack of beer still left from the first TaFtHB Day brew, back in 2006. We cracked a couple of them open, and that beer---an American red ale--- had aged very nicely! Certain light styles may suffer from age, but most beers will continue to get better for a long time before they start getting worse. Unfortunately, most homebrewers don't have the patience to keep their beer around for months and months! But I had forgotten this stuff was there, so I've still got 10 bottles of what is now excellent beer! This year's TaFtHB Day brew was a Belgian dubbel of sorts, turned out great from a flavor perspective, but it did not carbonate as expected. We added carb tabs to about a case of those bottles, and we'll see if that works to give them some fizz.

The Fermenator was free because the beer club had gone moribund about a year ago, but interestingly, when I inquired about using it, the rest of the club members were asked if they minded, and many of them responded with comments along the lines of, "Hey, we should get back together and make some more beer!" So it looks like, after this batch is done, the club may be re-vitalized.

In the mean time, as Charlie Papazian, the godfather of American homebrewing, says: "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!"