July Brewly 2014
Large group beer brewing day held at Jerry P's place on Sat, Jul 26, 2014. I think that 14 brewing stations were setup. Many other people visited throughout the day to observe. It was an excellent day of fine beer, food, and conversation with great people.
Group brew-crew photo.
We brewed a five-gallon version of the one-gallon Yellow Warbler Wit that we brewed back in April.
The weather was pleasant. Temps warmed into the 80s. A bit humid. Sometimes it was sunny, and sometimes it was cloudy. A brief rain shower passed through around mid-day.
Pre July Brewly Notes
Large group beer brewing day at Jerry P's place, scheduled for Sat, Jul 26, 2014. Over a dozen brewers are expected, and about 60 people may visit throughout the day at different times. Brewing begins at 10:00 a.m. Saison judging contest occurs in the afternoon. Potluck dinner begins at 6:00 p.m.
What to Bring according to JP
IF you are only brewing:
- I will have several buckets of Star San made up.
- That good carbon filtered water will be flowing.
- don't forget your propane!
- Bring some beer to share of the style you are brewing
- Also, please bring a small snack just for the afternoon
IF you are planning to ALSO stay and party at the potluck after brewing:
- You're welcome to put your filled fermenter in the basement.
- Maybe you can talk to your sig other / family and see if they want to meet you here after you brew. Please also bring:
- a chair
- a yard game if you like
- a delish dish to pass for the potluck
- a swimsuit and towel
What WE need to bring
- burner
- propane tank - get refilled
- large kettle
- lid for large kettle - do we have one??
- two pasta pots for help with something
- mash tun
- wort chiller
- digital scale
- large spoon
- 6.5 gallon plastic bucket
- lid for 6.5 gallon bucket
- airlock
- 2 gallon plastic bucket just in case
- siphon or racking cane??
- books
- gloves
- bring the extra 6.5 gallon bucket and lid??
- beer to share - need to purchase at The Andersons
- 2 soft folding chairs
- sunscreen
- food to snack on
- food for potluck
- gravity measuring device
- large plastic folding table
- small plastic folding table
- plastic container(s) to hold some spent grains??
- fire starter
- plastic pitcher to scoop and pour water for sparging
- large mesh strainer
- funnel for any reason?
- and whatever Deb has on her list
Photos
Day before, gathering items to bring, excluding the recently-bottled saison on the floor. Jerry and his crew stopped by on Fri, Jul 25 to get the table.
Saturday morning, July Brewly day, time to jam our small car with our gear. Other items that made the trip were not in the photo.
Deb and I arrived at Beer-Zero at 10:45 a.m.
At 11:04 am, we placed our kettle with four gallons of water onto the burner. About 8 or 9 other burners were fired up with more brewers arriving. [I think that 14 brewers brewed beer.]
At 11:24 a.m., the mash began. Every 15 minutes during the mash, we stirred and checked the temperature.
BAM's first homebrew. He and Jerry brewed a double batch of a Double IPA. It smelled amazing.
Sparging
And still sparging
Elsewhere at July Brewly. Burners, propane tanks, coolers, kettles, and fermenters.
Tasty snack to eat while sampling beer during our brewing.
Boil. Wimpy at first, but we got it going.
Wort-chillers. I drove to a nearby Dollar General and bought two large bags of ice to help with the cooling process.
Wort dumped from kettle into fermenter. We left everything in the wort: orange peels, coriander seeds, and the grains of paradise. It looked to be aerated, so we added the yeast, agitated the wort, and applied the lid and air-lock.
Finished! Once again, we received a lot of excellent help and advice from a lot of great people. It's a wonderful experience. Massive thanks to Jerry and his family for hosting us again. It requires a ton of work to pull this off.
We admired JP's hop plants.
