Learn to Homebrew Day

The 1st Saturday of every November is the annual Learn to Homebrew Day, founded by the American Homebrewers Association. The goal of which is to spread some awareness for homebrewing and teach some people how they can get started brewing their own beer at home. This year we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the event by brewing at Kitzingen Brewery and hopefully we spread some homebrewing awareness and knowledge along the way.

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