Teach a Friend to Homebrew

Last Saturday, November 7th, was National Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day. From http://www.beertown.org/events/teach/index.html ~
The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day is an international event to introduce people to the homebrewing hobby and establish relationships with local homebrew supply shops.
Each year on the first Saturday in November, homebrewers around the world are encouraged to invite non-brewing and brewing friends and family to celebrate Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day and brew a batch of beer together.
Before the event, participants that have Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day events register their site on this web page. These registered sites help the American Homebrewers Association track how many participants celebrated the event.

As usual, the Star City Brewer's Guild hosted a TAFTH at Lamplighter Mall, outside Blue Ridge Hydroponic and Homebrew Store. While we only stayed a short while, we did stop by with the kids for a bit early on in the day. We watched one member add his grains for his all-grain brew, and another start his kit-brewing. The gentleman who was doing the kit-brew explained to the kids how he was hanging the grains from a wire so that they wouldn't burn from sitting on the bottom of the pot. Shannon picked up on this and was able to tell us what he learned on the way home. Tristan, who is still only 3, only noted that the gentleman didn't have crackers and cheese .. something he had when we visited him at his home during a brew day!
HOWEVER, something kinda impressive happened the next morning.


~Tristan helping stir the pot~

Sunday, the 8th, we brewed our "Ruby's Deep Winter" Stout. While both kids insist on helping, it is normally Shannon who is really insistent upon being a part. This Sunday, however, it was Tristan who woke up ready to brew. I have no doubt in my mind this was because of attending Teach a Friend to Homebrew the day before.

While a 5 1/2 year old and a 3 year old may not have exactly been the "target audience" for learning to homebrew, they did learn. And since we live in a society where practically the only thing deemed allowable/acceptable/appropriate for children to do is watch tv, play video games, and generally be worshipped rather than productive members of a household ... I consider them learning how to homebrew a great success.

First Brews of 2009

Saturday turned out to be a very gorgeous day, so like many homebrewers across the valley, we headed outside to brew. We got started at 8:45 am, while it was about 45 degrees out. It quickly warmed up to 62 degrees though, which was quite nice.
We were especially fortunate today because of the amount that we were able to brew. We brewed two 10 gallon batches of all-grain beer: our stout, "Ruby's Deep Winter," and our brown ale "Back Porch Brown." In the top photo you can see the Back Porch Brown still finishing sparging, with the wort being collected in the bottom kettle. In the right side of the photo is our stout in it's final boil. We had decided to brew the stout, as St. Patrick's Day will be upon us soon and it just seems quite wrong to celebrate without a stout. St. Patrick's Day is not only special to us because of our love for beer but also because we were married that day ~ 2009 will be our 4th anniversary!

Here is another shot of the brown ale, March's competition beer for Star City Brewer's Guild, finishing sparging with the wort being collected in the bottom kettle.

One of the really great things about this particular brewing day was the reaction of our boys. They were both not only very interested in it all, but very excited about getting to help. In the above photo you can see Shannon helping add hops to the brown ale, in the bottom photo you can see Tristan getting his turn adding hops. Shannon has been very proud of the fact that he gets to help brew beer. And while we certainly don't condone underage drinking, teaching them about brewing beer is another matter.

We believe in being self-sufficeint and sustainable, and we practice urban-homesteading. Brewing our own beer is part of that. Since we're also homeschooling the boys, we like that in learning how to brew beer they are also learning stuff like volume measurements, some basic math skills, along with the processes of how things come to be. Shannon helps measure, weigh, and grind out the grain. In the summer we grow hops, so they learn about horticulture and caring for the land, as well as the plant. In the fall they get to see how the hops are harvested and stored. They also learn about safety, something that is every parents' concern, since there is boiling water and wort and flames on burners. So far they've managed to learn this lesson very well .. much better than the dogs who keep getting their fur singed!
All in all yesterday's brewing went pretty smoothly and much quicker than we had anticipated. Wind was a little bit of an issue, as it kept blowing out the burner. We were much luckier than some others who had not only burners being blown out, but lids being blown off, and even glasses being blown over! Both beers are now in the fermenters, chugging away like they ought to be. Our only dilemma of the day was using the "new" keg and having to pour some beer over the edge of it, into a fermenter. Hopefully this won't pose a major contamination threat. We will plan to drink that stout first though, just in case. Not like any beer, much less Ruby's Deep Winter Stout, sits around waiting to be drunk for very long here anyway!!