To align with International Women's Day (every March 8th), the Pink Boots Society does the Pink Boots Collaboration Brew Day to help raise awareness and the profile of the contributions of women in the brewing industry. To celebrate, two of the women of our club (Olivia Hofmann and Hilary VandenToorn) collaborated on a recipe that we all brewed together. We each mashed on our own systems, then transferred the wort from all the disparate systems to our 40 gallon club pot for the boil. From there, each brewer is putting their own unique spin on it post-boil.

Recipe:
American Wheat Ale
ABV 5.4%
OG: 1.056 FG: 1.014
IBUs: 21 Color 4 SRM
Batch Size 5 gallons
Mash 60 min @ 152*

5.5 lbs Pale 2-Row Malt
5.5 lbs White Wheat Malt

1 oz Willamette (60 min)
0.5 oz Willamette (5 min)

Adam, the "head blender" at Speciation gave us a tour and taught us all about their unique processes that make some of
the best sour beers in the country. From foeders to coolships, they are really doing some interesting things. There were
several new brewers, which we thank for joining our growing club. Our monthly BJCP judging commercial calibration beer was Victory Brewing Company's Sour Monkey To see the results of the judging and compare your own tastebuds to Gordon Strong, you can view it on Brew Brawl.

Brewers met at Kitzingen early Saturday, March 16 and whipped up a batch of wort at ~1.045 SG. Once completed, entrants took home 5 gallons and do whatever they wanted with it! In 7 short weeks they returned 6 packs of their creations to Sicilliano’s Big Brew Day at Trailpoint Brewing.

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I brewed a peppermint bark ale for our December club competition (Christmas spice beer), and Perry brewed a SMASH (single malt, single hop) Vienna lager, with hallertau blanc hops and Craft Culture's UP Lager yeast. The brew day went okay, but as always, mistakes were made. During the mash, I realized I left my hops at home, and had to drive home to get them. Luckily I had plenty of time during the mash and was back in time to sparge and continue with the brew day.

​We had a few people stop by and we explained what we were doing, and the basics of brewing, to those who'd listen. Overall it was a pretty light crowd. We didn't have much time to plan the event, and I know a lot of people were near a TV, watching the game. Oh well, their loss. They may never know the great feeling of pouring your own delicious homebrewed beer!

Rommie Bailey, the head brewer and owner of Kitzingen, was a very gracious host and we are really glad to have had the opportunity to set up shop on his sidewalk. While we were brewing, he told us tales and methods learned from his recent trip to Germany, where he studied at a German beer school. Several other Rivertown Homebrewers showed up throughout the day to drink, chat and hang out. In the end, we made some great beer, and had a great time doing it!

Cheers!
Johnny

 A brief forward...
The microbrewery's namesake is inspired by Kitzingen, Germany, a small town near Wurzburg. Formerly part of the United States Army Wurzburg military community,  owner/brewer Rommie Bailey served at the base in the 1980's, and much of the decor inside the brewery tells the story and pays homage to the relationship between the American soldiers and the German people at the base.

It wouldn't be Oktoberfest without lederhosen and the lovely kellnerinnen (waitresses) !

As you can see from this shot taken during setup, Rommie has doubled the size of the event this year, expecting up to 3,000 people over the weekend!

Rivertown Homebrewers weren't just there to party, we were volunteering too! Here's Mark pouring the beer from the club jockeybox whilst Perry continues his endless  recruiting in the background.

With games and kid-friendly zones, this party had something for everyone!

Time for another beer, Rivertown Homebrewers, Jeremy, Joe and Drew! Prost!

Rommie found great live music for the bash! 
Here are some samples of the phenomenal music!

Charlie Rockits
Trixy Tang
Decades
Hairmania

It was a fantastic event and you can bet Rivertown Hombrewers are game for next year's shindig as well!
If you have any ideas for next year or more photos from the event comment below!

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​This last Saturday and Sunday we had the opportunity to demonstrate at the Grand Rapids Public Museum for the Grand Rapids Mini Maker Faire. The Maker Faire is kind of like a show and tell for different makers of all kinds, be they robotics engineering teams, hot sauce makers, video game designers, cosplayers dressing up as our favorite characters from comics and film, woodworkers building their own house with hand tools and lumber scavenged from their own property, or even explorers braving the watery depths in a hand-built submarine! All of these different exhibits, (and plenty more!) were present and showing the world what they do. For those of us at Rivertown Homebrewers, that means we were brewing beer!

​The morning brought about a new day, a new set of brewers, and new challenges. Once everything was unloaded, the brewers waited so we could stagger the boils and chilling times for optimum engagement. During this time we enjoyed a beer and some chatting with the gents from TwoGuys along with perusing the other booths at the faire. Johnny was off swooning over the cos-players intermittently, while Drew spoke with the people giving various electronics demonstrations.

​Mark’s mash continued without a hitch but calculations were not done correctly for his equipment, so he ended up with a volume of less than predicted OG.

The surprise of the day was Jeremy’s 1 gallon batch which was originally thought to be an extract with steeping grains. When he walked over to get his extract to add it was discovered it was an all grain kit and the modifications on the fly had began! Mark, being Johnny-on-the-spot, had cheesecloth he normally used for hop bags, which we were able to re-purpose into several BIAB bags to hold the grain for Jeremy. The hops from the kit of an indeterminate age (it was given to him by a friend, who got it for a Christmas present many moons ago) were immediately thrown out for some of the extra Loral hops provided by TwoGuys for us. To boost the malt flavor a small amount of chocolate malt was added thanks to Johnny’s handy dandy toolbox-o-brewing stuff.  ​