Saturday, November 7th, is Teach a Friend to Brew Day. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day is an international event to introduce people to the hobby of homebrewing. For the fifth time, I’ll be inviting friends – and their friends – over to learn how to brew beer. We’ll be starting promptly at 9:00 a.m., milling over 25 pounds of malted barley, to make a 10 gallon batch of TAFTBD IPA. Brad, a relatively new brewer, will be brewing a 10 gallon batch of German Hefeweizen. He’s living proof that anyone can do this with a minimal investment.
I’ll have coffee and morning munchies early in the day, as well as sausages (John has offered to be the event’s GrillMaster:) and lunch munchies in the afternoon. Additionally, attendees will have full run of the 8 ales I have on tap throughout the day:) We should be done around 3:00 p.m. My best guess is that there will be about fifteen attendees.
Last year’s event at Sociables was a huge success!
The 2008 Teach a Friend to Brew Day Crew
Teach a Friend to Brew Day 2008 was a huge success! The official head count came in at 24 attendees – and very few raindrops! We had a very diverse group – with a gentleman all the way from New Zealand. Best of all, three of the attendees have all but confirmed that they will start homebrewing, with one more as a strong probable. Since this is what TAFTBD is all about, I see this as a big victory.
Many thanks to the Two Steves (Stephen V. and Steve H.) for providing hours of teaching and brewing advice to those who listened intently, while I brewed my annual ten gallon batch of TAFTBD IPA. It was great to have additional homebrewing veterans on hand to yak it up while I tried to stay on task:)
One of the best moments of the day was when Steve H. whipped out three large swingtop bottles of TAFTBD IPA, the recipe we were brewing, for one of those cooking show moments where you pull the fully cooked recipe item out of the oven – in all its glory! It was a real eye-opener for everyone to actually taste the ale we were brewing – it brought it all home for everyone.
Everyone kicked in food and munchies for the day, and special thaks go out to John for organizing the day’s food and slaving away over the grill. It was a good thing we had such great food support as my best guess is that we went through 12-15 gallons of ale. At the end of the day, three kegs were blown (with one more containing only 2 or 3 more pints), the Old Man Bitter, the Evil Twin Red Ale and the Black Widow Stout. We need some momento for folks when the blow a keg at Sociables Alehouse. I’m thinking of a commemorative T-shirt or something. Of course, people would have to go a long ways to beat Stephen, who’s been dubbed, The BlowMaster, for his prowess in killing kegs. 
A Photo Gallery has been posted of the day’s activities for your viewing pleasure.
The Teach a Friend to Brew Day IPA is happily fermenting away. I started the ferment cool and it has picked up a few degrees from the fermentation process, but it is still working at a nice cool temperature. My beer might as well enjoy the cool weather while it can. Soon the summer heat in California’s Central Valley will make for problematic fermentations. I was surprised that the TAFTBD IPA didn’t ferment wildly and come shooting out the blow-off tubes. It did slightly trickle out of one of the BOTs, but nothing like I’ve been seeing in recent months with my ale fermentations. The krausen has peaked right at the top of the 6.5 gallon carboy’s neck, so I know things are going well. The difference in this fermentation might be the White Labs Pacific Ale yeast. It does attenuate less than the Cal Ale yeast I usually use.
I have several brews on the horizon. I need to brew my Klassic Kolsch again, an English Bitter, a standard Pale Ale and finally, I want to brew an American Style wheat – possibly with some fresh watermelon in the secondary. I have the yeast for all of these brews, so time is ticking on their shelf life. Unfortunately, the Kolsch will require the use of my conditioning fridge for the necessary cool fermentation, so I’ll need to find a home for those five kegs for a month – or have a party and drink down the brews that I have on hand:)
I recently found this picture I’d taken with my cell phone while waiting for my daughter’s plane to arrive at the Sacramento Airport. Her flight was delayed for an extra hour (and I arrived early anyway), so I dropped by one of my favorite pubs in Sacramento, River City Brewing Company for a pint of Woodenhead Ale. They’ve had a cask ale the last few times I’ve been in, and I’ve tasted it each time, but it always seems thin and lacking the body I like in an ale.
The Teach a Friend to Brew Day IPA is currently chilling (as I am with a Summit IPA:). The brew session went well once I quit chasing the temperature of the mash. I always wig out when the mash temp is not where I expect it to be once I mash in – always forgetting that I need to wait for it to stabilize. Initially it seemed high and I dropped in a couple quarts of cold water to drop it, and then it was way low, necessitating a couple quarts of water from the hot liquor tank. Maybe I just need to have a pint and chill out with some good tunes when I’m mashing in!
It’s funny how your perspective changes as to the value of a particular brew, with this ale requiring such a large amount of hops. But in the big picture of things, it is worth it. I love the big hop front-end of this ale, backed up by the huge malt backbone. This is truly one of my house ales that needs to be on tap all the time.
TAFTBD IPA has got to be one of the most aromatic boils I do, of all my ales. Each addition of hops causes a crescendo of aroma that permeates my back yard, as well as the nearby neighborhood. I just love brewing this ale! John came over towards the end of the boil and at that point I had a couple ales. I’ve learned that my brews turn out better (like I don’t forget to add things at the right time:) if I wait to have an ale until late in the boil. The ice on my pre-chiller is almost gone and the temp is right on track at about 72 degrees. I’ll be dropping the wort into the carboys in just a few moments.
The only difference to the recipe I posted earlier, is that I added a half pound of corn sugar as I have been doing lately with all my IPAs. I like how the corn sugar helps dry out the ale a bit. It also help me hit my projected OG. The TAFTBD IPA came in at 19 brix, or an original gravity of 1.076. This should be a quality ale in eight weeks!
Last Friday afternoon, I went to the taps to pull a pint of one of my favorite homebrewed IPAs, my TAFTBD IPA (Teach a Friend to Brew Day), and it spit the keg’s accumulated yeast into my my pint glass. Swearing under my breath, I realized that it was time to break out the brew sculpture and make another batch. This is the ale I’ve brewed the last three years in November to mark the AHA‘s Teach a Friend to Brew Day event. It is a hearty, west coast IPA, with a strong malt backbone, that holds up well to large quantities of Columbus, Centennial and Cascade hops. This IPA is always well received by hopheads and is a beautiful amber-copper color, with a wonderful nose of citrusy and piny aromas. This isn’t a particularly “hop crisis” friendly brew, using 10 ounces of hops, but I’ve planned well in my 2007 harvest hop purchasing – and a pint of this stuff is mothers milk for hopheads:) The only thing I’m changing up on the recipe from past brews is the use of White Labs Pacific Ale yeast, WLP0041. Normally I use Cal Ale yeast, WLP001, in TAFTBD IPA, but the Pacific Ale yeast brings a little more yeast character to the table. I’ve used it in my IPAs in the past with great results. I’m so glad White Labs has removed this yeast from their seasonal lineup and made it available year-round. Here’s the recipe:
Teach A Friend to Brew IPA
14-B American IPA
Size: 10.0 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 305.76 per 16.0 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.069 (1.056 – 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.017 (1.010 – 1.018)
Color: 11.5 (6.0 – 15.0)
Alcohol: 6.78% (5.5% – 7.5%)
Bitterness: 65.47 (40.0 – 60.0)
Ingredients:
20.0 lbs Pale Malt (2-row)
5.0 lbs Golden Promise
2.0 lbs Victory Malt
1.0 lbs Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
1.0 lbs Crystal 40L
1.0 oz Columbus (15.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
1.5 oz Centennial (10.5%) – added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
2 ea Whirlfloc – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
1.5 oz Centennial (10.5%) – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.8%) – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
1.5 oz Cascade (5.8%) – added during boil, boiled 2.0 min
1.5 oz Centennial (10.5%) – added during boil, boiled 2.0 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.8%) – added dry to primary fermenter
1.0 oz Centennial (10.5%) – added dry to primary fermenter
1 1600 ml starter White Labs WLP041 Pacific Ale
I made the starter this afternoon when I got home from work, so it really won’t have as much time as I’d like to build up the cell counts. I’ll feed the starter on Saturday and then again on Sunday morning when I fire up the burners on the brew sculpture.
Sadly, this won’t be ready and in prime condition until at least June…
