The Big Brew

Most of you know, there was a Big Brew planned. I got together with a couple other brewers for a little adventure. Joined by Keith and Tony, we were out for something different, original and fun. So we decided to do a 15 gallon brew. Some or you may know, but some may not. The typical batch size for a homebrewer is five gallons, but Tony has a gigantic pot and we all had the desire to brew beer. So we brewed a 15 gallon batch and I feel it will be the first of many.

First, we gathered one Sunday afternoon at the local Mellow Mushroom and decided what we were going to brew. It didn't take long, but we decided to do an American Brown Ale. Some homebrewers use special computer software to help build their beer recipe, but we are Traditionalist. We sat by the sun filled window and let out imaginations fly! Yes Dave, I said we let them fly!

After we scribbled down a recipe and gathered the necessary ingredients, we needed a place to brew. Since Tony had the gigantic pot, we brewed at his house.
As we organized the chaos, we got right to business. Grains were crushed, mash tuns were put together and water was heating. It was like we had done this together before, but we were still young to the Big Brew concept. As you see in the picture, we were getting things in the right spots.
When we got the mash going, we realized that all our grains were not going to fit in one cooler. If you are not familiar with mashing, this is the how you convert starches to sugars. Mashing is when you add hot water to crushed grain and it basically is steeped in a tun until the starches are converted. The coolers are to help keep the temperatures consistent. Luckily, we had enough coolers to get all the grain going at the same time and then we sparged them all into the gigantic kettle.

After that, we brewed the beer with no problems. Some spectators thought we might have a problem with boilover, but we assured him we were men and could handle it. And we did! Not a single boilover.
When the beer finished brewing, Tony added the chiller to help it cool faster. We separated the beer into three different fermentors and we all had separate plans. The plan was we will all use different yeast strains. Also, some of us will split our batches into two and add some secondary ingredients to add different flavors, but stay tuned for that info.

I think all of us are happy with the brew. The color is a little dark, but everything else ended up right on. Our Original Gravity (OG) was 1.062, which is a bit higher than we planned, but we will live with it. Remember, we didn't use any fancy computer software. In the next few weeks, it should be fun watching how this Brown Ale will take on different personalities with the different yeast.

Stay tuned, because when it is all said and done, we are going to have a tasting. A tasting of the Brown Ales and you are invited!